Notes on the Lord’s Supper

Notes on the Lord’s Supper

Text: 1 Corinthians 11:17–34

17 Now in this that I declare unto you I praise you not, that ye come together not for the better, but for the worse.

* Paul says they are coming together for bad and not good.

18 For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it. * The people were gathering together in clicks and little groups. The congregation was divided. 19 For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.

* Paul was concerned because there were also false teachers in their gatherings.

* They had turned the Lord’s supper in to a disorderly party of sorts.

20 When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord’s supper.

* “When ye come together into one place, it is not possible to eat the Lord’s Supper.” It is impossible for them to celebrate the Lord’s Supper because of the way that they conducted the feast which preceded it. Under such circumstances they couldn’t celebrate the Lord’s Supper. 21 For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken.

* What a comment that is! Some poor fellow would come to the dinner, and he couldn’t even bring a covered dish of scalloped potatoes. He was that poor. And he was hungry. Next to him would sit a rich fellow who had fried chicken and ice cream, and he wouldn’t pass one bit of food to the poor fellow who was hungry. The fellowship was broken. There could not be fellowship when there was a situation like that.

* If they were not going to share in true fellowship, they should have eaten at home. What they were doing was fracturing and rupturing the church. And some were actually getting drunk during this agape love feast. They were in no condition to remember the death of Christ at all. It would all be fuzzy and hazy to them. Paul says again, “Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not.”

22 What? have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not?

* The thing that has Paul upset is not that they were having a meal, but that the meal had become shameful. Those in the church who did not have much to bring to this meal were made to feel ashamed and marginalized by the more well to do people in the church. The whole thing had lost its meaning altogether. What shall I say to you? shall I praise you in this? I praise you not. 23 For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: 24 And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. 25 After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. 26 For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.

* Paul now explains that there will be judgment on those who disrespect the Lord’s Supper. 27 Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. 29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. 30 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.

* This is a wonderful principle to live by- one that I live by and David lived by. 31 For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. 32 But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. * Notice that Paul does not tell them to discontinue the meals in the church, but tells them from now on to wait on each other. 33 Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another. 34 And if any man hunger, let him eat at home; that ye come not together unto condemnation. And the rest will I set in order when I come.

A little Background Information:

* The Lord’s Supper is the highest expression and the holiest exercise of Christian worship. In Corinth it had dropped to such a low secular level that they were practically blaspheming it.

* Three of the four Gospels record the institution of the Lord’s Supper, and it is repeated in this epistle. It is interesting that nowhere are we commanded to remember the Lord’s birthday, but we are requested and commanded that those who are His own should remember His deathday.

* In that day the Lord’s Supper was preceded by a social meal. It was probably celebrated in the homes and celebrated daily. Acts tells us, “And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved” (Acts 2:46–47).

* The church in Corinth followed the procedure of having a meal in connection with the Lord’s Supper. After all, the Passover was that kind of celebration in the Upper Room. After our Lord had celebrated the Passover supper, He took bread and broke it. On the dying embers of a fading feast, He did something new. Out of the ashes of that dead feast, He erected a new monument, not of marble or bronze, but of simple elements of food.

* In the early church they had these dinners for fellowship, and they were called an agape or “love feast.” This was a part of the fellowship of the church. In that day the social gathering led right into the Lord’s Supper. It was kept separate, but the agape always preceded the observing of the Lord’s Supper. Later on these feasts were separated, and they are not practiced like that today. We do not have a “love feast” or dinner which precedes the Lord’s Supper.

Because of the separation, we do not duplicate the bad situation that prevailed in the Corinthian church.

* In certain religions the name “Eucharist” is given to the observance of the Lord’s Supper. The name “Eucharist” means to give thanks. The observance of the Lord’s Supper is exactly that. It is a time that the Lord had commanded that the church do this as an offering of thanksgiving.

False Teaching about the Lord’s Supper

* I would like to deal first of all with some false teaching about the Lord’s Supper. These false teachings come about as a result of the teaching of the Catholic Church and are shared by several other denominations.

* This false teaching I want to deal with is called by the name of “transubstantiation.”

* This twenty dollar word simple put means this- that the bread that we partake of and the wine, are magically transformed into the actual flesh and blood of Jesus.

* They believe that, as the result of the action of the priest, the bread is changed actually into the physical body of the Lord Jesus Christ.

* This false teaching is a doctrine which began in the middle ages. During the middle ages there came a time that the Catholic Church had declined so much that it was in shambles. The leaders of the church needed a way to draw the people back to the church.

* It was decided that the only way to bring the church back to its former state was to elevate the office of the priest.

* This doctrine of “transubstantiation” was put into place to elevate the office of the priest because only the priest could perform this miracle of turning the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. This doctrine was loosely held but was not defined and written down until the twelfth century.

* This false doctrine of “transubstantiation” remains the official doctrine of the Catholic Church until the protestant reformation and is still held by the Catholics and others today.

* Now the Lutherans have a slightly different view. They do not believe in transubstantiation but in what is called consubstantiation. They say that the Catholics are wrong and there is no change in the substance of the bread. The bread still remains bread, but the body of the Lord becomes joined to it (con means ‘with’, hence con-substantial). So they believe they have both the bread and the body of the Lord at the same time.

* The reason the Lutheran’s adopted this doctrine is that Martin Luther, the founder of the Lutheran movement, having started at the beginning by seeing this the teaching of the Lord’s supper clearly, afterwards weakened and, having been influenced by some of his friends, went back to a compromise with the old Catholic position.

* Well, neither teaching can be supported by the Bible. These are simply the additions of the doctrines of men that have corrupted the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper for the benefit of their “religion.”

* So, what is signified by the communion of the Lord’s Supper?

* The first thing signified is the Lord’s death. Paul states that explicitly in 1 Corinthians 11. He says, ‘For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew [proclaim] the Lord’s death till he come’ (v. 26). * The breaking of the bread and the pouring or the drinking of the wine are a representation of our Lord’s broken body, His shed blood. That is the primary thing that is signified by this action and in 1 Corinthians 11 Paul specifically tells us to do this because in that way we are declaring our Lord’s death.

* There have been times throughout history that preachers have failed to proclaim the death of the Jesus. His death has been denied and misrepresented in certain times of history, but this ordinance that our Lord gave to the apostle Paul has continued to proclaim the death of Jesus throughout the ages.

* Our Lord has given this commandment—as Paul says, ‘for I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you’ (1 Cor. 11:23)—and He commanded the other apostles in the same way (Luke 22:19–20). Though the pulpit may have failed, the Lord’s Supper has still gone on declaring, proclaiming, preaching the Lord’s death.

* The Lord’s Supper is also a declaration and a sign of the believer’s participation in the crucified Christ. We are in communion with Him. It reminds us of that and of our union with Him and, therefore, of our participation in His death. You remember the message that I recently preached about our union with Christ a few weeks ago. The book of Romans teaches that we are in Christ and, because we are in Christ, we have died with Him, and been buried with Him, and we have risen again with Him.

* The Lord’s Supper is a reminder to us and a declaration that we participate in all the benefits of the new covenant.

* This comes out in the apostle’s words in 1 Corinthians 11:25: ‘After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament [the new covenant] in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.’

* The shedding of blood in the death of the Lord was also the ratification of the new covenant. We read about that new covenant in the epistle to the Hebrews, in the eighth chapter, in the tenth chapter in particular, and, indeed, in the ninth also.

* So, then, the Communion Service is a reminder to us that in and through our Lord Jesus Christ, God has made a new covenant with believers. Christ is the mediator of the new covenant. He is the head and representative of humanity in this new agreement, this marvelous new covenant that God makes with men and women. In Hebrews 8 you see the striking contrast between the two covenants.

For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts [no longer on stone outside but in their minds and in their hearts]: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: and they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.

Hebrews 8:8–12

* Every time we meet at the communion table and partake of the Lord’s Supper we are declaring this new covenant and all the contents of the new covenant of which we are reminded there in Hebrews 8. You see what a tremendous thing it is to meet at that table and to take the bread and the wine?

* We do not stop even at that. In addition, we are reminded by the partaking of the bread and the wine that we, as believers, receive from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself life and strength to live the Christian life.

* The verses which tell us that are to be found in John 6.

John 6:35–37 (KJV 1900)

35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. 36 But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and believe not. 37 All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.

John 6:47–58 (KJV 1900)

47 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. 48 I am that bread of life. 49 Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. 50 This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. 51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. 52 The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? 53 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. 54 Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. 56 He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. 58 This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.

*Now in John 6 Jesus was not referring to the Communion Service and for this good reason: at that time the disciples were clearly not capable of receiving such teaching. Our Lord only really begins to deal with this at the end, in the upper room. The Roman Catholics, however, say that John 6 is a reference to the Communion Service—it suits their argument to do so—and so do those who follow them.

* Our Lord says, ‘He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.’ Now our Lord Himself goes on to explain that this is just a picture: * ‘When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life’ (vv. 61–63). * Jesus is saying, in effect, ‘You must eat of me. You must eat my flesh and drink my blood. That is, you must live on Me. As the Father has sent Me and I live by the Father, even so I am sending you and you must live by Me.’ That was a spiritual partaking. He did not say that He was literally eating of the substance of His heavenly Father, of course not! It is a spiritual conception: ‘[My words] are spirit and they are life.’