All right, let's look with great
reference at the text this morning that we have concerning the Lord's
Supper, Paul writing to the Corinthian church, verse 20. When you come
together, therefore, into one place, this is not to eat the
Lord's Supper. For in eating every one taketh
before his own supper, one is hungry and another is drunken. What? Have ye not houses to eat
and to drink in? Or despise ye the church of God,
and shame them that have not? What shall I say unto you? Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not. For I have
received of the Lord, that which also I delivered unto you, that
the Lord Jesus, in the same night in which he was betrayed, took
bread. When he had given thanks, he
broke it, and said, Take, eat, this is my body, which is broken
for you, this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner
also 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. For as oft as ye drink this bread,
eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death
till he come." Verse Corinthians 11. 20 through verse 26. This understands something about
the Corinthian church and the Corinthian assembly. It is no
secret to anyone who has read diligently the Corinthian epistles
that the Corinthian church and its members were the most carnal
and were the most error prone and were the most confused, the
most unsettled of all of the churches among whom Paul ministered
the gospel and taught the Word of God. In fact, the first epistle
to the Corinthians is almost devoted exclusively in its entirety
to addressing those eras that were present in the church there
at Corinth. Not to labor the point, but let
us, if we might, run quickly through them, the things that
were amiss, as seen here in this epistle, addressed by the apostle,
that he might give them guidance on the matter. This is why Paul
wrote the first epistle unto them. Some had asked him questions. Others had sent word of the divisions
and the errors that were there. And so Paul takes them up one
by one as he answers in this epistle. This will just take
a moment. Let's look very quickly. First
of all, chapter 1 and verse 11. down through chapter 4, he deals
at some length with their divisions and sectarians over their ministers. Secondly, there in chapter 5,
there were those that were tolerating sexual immorality of a man in
the church. and so he guides them on that. Thirdly, in the 6th chapter we
notice, they were suing one another at the law, and that before the
heathen courts of the city and of the land, and Paul gives them
guidance on that. Fourthly, if you notice chapter
7, The question or the issue there is marriage, as some taught,
that it was much better and more spiritually advantageous to live
single, a celibate life. Fifthly, chapter 8 through chapter
10, there were the contentions there about the eating of meat
that had been sacrificed unto idol and the consequences of
those acts upon the conscience of the weak believers that were
there in Corinth. chapter 11 through chapter 14. He deals with their related issues
of public worship, to the exercise of the spiritual gifts that were
in them, to women teachers and such things as that, chapter
11 through 14. Seventhly, we notice in chapter
15 that the consequences of denying the resurrection of the dead
are brought forth unto them, for some there were who said
that the resurrection was already passed or that there was no such
thing as a resurrection. Now obviously, by the numbers,
our present text falls squarely within that section in section
6 that has to do with public worship, especially and in particular
the manner of observing the supper or the communion of the Lord. Paul calls it the Lord's Supper,
if you will notice there in verse 20. In the scripture, we have
two references to this ordinance of the Lord's Supper by which
to be guided and to know what to do. The first one, of course,
are those in the Gospels given by the Lord Jesus Christ himself,
how the Lord instituted this supper of the Lord late in His
life in the upper room with a disciple. And the Lord did so. That is,
He instituted the supper of the Lord by using, I'm persuaded,
the elements that were there and used in the Passover supper,
bread and wine particularly. as representative of his body
and of his blood and his instruction given unto the disciples to keep
this and do it in remembrance of me. But we have a second accounting
of the supper of the Lord and that's Paul's reference to the
supper to rescue it from the abuses and the harm that was
being done to it at the hand of the Corinthians themselves.
Then, to instruct them the proper way and the proper meaning of
the supper of the Lord and its observation. Now, at this point,
let us consider what doctrine is there that has not been perverted
to some degree by men and by heretics. The Lord's Supper is
no exception. It has been made by some into
what they call a sacrament, called even a Eucharist, and evolved
into that doctrine of transubstantiation that is used by the Roman Church
and consubstantiation. consubstantiation as used by
the Lutheran Church. And yet both the Lord and the
Apostle Paul view the supper as a memorial remembrance of
his death. Luke 22 and 19, this do in remembrance
of me when the Lord instituted the supper. Paul in 1 Corinthians
11, 24 and 25 recalls that the Lord said, both of the bread
and of the cup, do this in remembrance of me. And as oft as you eat
and drink, you do show forth the Lord's death till he come.
Here's a quote from Stephen Sharna, an old Puritan, who wrote rather
extensively on this matter. He said, and I'm quoting, that
God was always careful of appointing and preserving memorials of his
favor, unquote. Several of them in the Old Testament
we find memorials to the good, gracious work and the power of
God. A couple of them only we will
consider. A, this is how there came to
be the Old Testament Passover Supper. It was to be kept every
year as a memorial of their deliverance out of Egyptian bondage and suffering. And you can see it in Exodus
13 verses 1 through 10, and again Moses records it in Deuteronomy
chapter 16 and verse 1 through 3. And the second great memorial
of the scripture is that one in the New Testament, the Lord's
Supper, the taking of the bread and of the wine, as a memorial
of the suffering and the death of our blessed Lord and Savior,
to commemorate the death of the Lord, the death that He died
in behalf of the elect. to call to mind the death that
he died, to deliver us from this present evil world in remembrance
of him as a memorial that he gave his life for us, His body
to be bruised and His blood to be shed. His blood, He calls
the blood of the New Testament in the Gospel. Now, before we
wade out into this text this morning, consider something,
and that is that this text seems to confirm that it was a practice
at that time in church history to combine a common meal with
the supper of the Lord. To have one and then the other. John Gill thought that this was
the case and he called that common meal there, quote, anti-supper,
unquote. The anti-supper, the one that
they ate before the supper of the Lord. And Paul speaks there
in verse 20 and verse 21, making a contrast, if you notice, the
Lord's supper in verse 20 and everyone his own supper in verse
21. Now, along this line of thought,
let us remember that the Lord instituted the memorial supper. It was after they had eaten the
Jewish Passover supper. They had gathered in the upper
room for the express purpose of eating the Jewish Passover
supper. In fact, furthermore, it seems
to be clear that the Lord used, as I said, the elements from
the Passover meal that He might institute the new memorial using
the bread and the wine. I've always liked the way that
Spurgeon, Charles H. Spurgeon said that the Jewish
Passover supper was made to melt into the supper of the Lord as
the stars of the morning dissolve into the light of the sun, unquote. And the Passover gave way to
the new memorial because of a new sacrifice that was to be given. Now in 1 Corinthians 11, the
apostle scolds them strongly for their abuse of the supper
of the Lord in verse 20 through verse 22. Then reminds them of
the true meaning and nature of the supper and the reverence
with which this supper of the Lord should be observed. in verse 23 through verse 26. Now look at verse 20. When you
gather together, he said, this is not to eat the supper of the
Lord. Think, perhaps Paul is saying,
it's not even worthy to be called by the name of the supper of
the Lord. For when they pretended that
they were to keep the supper of the Lord. They did behave
so badly as a preliminary unto the supper of the Lord, what
Sharnock again called the preliminary banquet, quote-unquote. that
they lost all sight, they lost all sight and all reverence for
that supper of the Lord. For look what they did. Each
one brought their own supper, their own food, And then what
did they do? Not share it with all and all
alike, but they sat down and devoured each one, their own
private suppers that they had brought, until they were like
a gluttonous, selfish, voracious, greedy pig at the trough. They got down their own dainties
that they had brought with them from their home, and they left
the poor and they left the hungry there to despise and humiliate
those who had little or nothing to bring so that some left hungry
in verse 21 and some were intoxicated also in verse 21. Some that were too
poor to contribute were left with nothing to eat. The more
affluent came, and like pigs gulped it down and overimbibed. If we could catch a picture of
this and the feeling that it engendered in those poor and
those hungry, it would almost bring tear under our eyes. Consider in verse 22, some have
drawn, I believe, the wrong conclusion from it, and that is that it
is wrong to eat any common meal in the church building. But Paul
tells them, if you're going to make it a private family meal
only, if you're going to make it, this might be done at home. You have houses for that. You
have houses in which to live. that you might avoid, therefore,
a double aspersion, if you would do it in that manner. A, bringing
contempt upon the Church of God by your behavior, to lay it open
to such disgrace, to have so little esteem and respect for
the Church where you attend. Think of the churches with their
gymnasium and their basketball courts, their basket weaving
classes, their arts and their crafts and their counseling centers
and their workout rooms and their cafeterias and their daycare
centers and their resale shops. All of them nestled there in
the building where they worshiped. But all of them having absolutely
nothing to do with the pure and the true worship of God. But a second thing he scolds
them for, shaming the poor, doing the poor. to make them feel ashamed
for having so little to bring and to contribute. They denied
the better food that they brought by the most affluent and denied
it to those that were poor and hungry. For these things Paul
would not praise them, which means that he blamed them, that
he found fault in their behavior and in their conduct. But now,
coming to verse 23 through verse 26, After having roundly criticized
and scolded them for corrupting the Lord's Supper so, the apostle
now sets before them the true and the proper end of the Lord's
Supper. And he does so, or begins so,
by reminding them that what he had taught them about the Lord's
Supper was only based upon what he himself had learned or had
been revealed to him from the Lord, saying in verse 23, the
first part, for I received of the Lord. He means from the Lord,
that which I also delivered unto you. how that the Lord instituted
the supper and the meaning that the Lord attached unto it concerning
the bread and the wine. Paul at other times used this
kind of expression again. In 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and
3, I delivered unto you that which first of all I receive,
how that Christ died for our sin according unto the Scripture."
Again, in Galatians 1 verse 11 and 12, he received the gospel
by divine revelation from Jesus Christ. And in 1 Corinthians
4 and 2, He gave commands by the Lord Jesus Christ. Moses said the same thing to
the people under his charge in Deuteronomy chapter 4 and verse
5. He said to them, Behold, I have
taught you the statutes and the judgment, even as the Lord my
God commanded me. I have given you what I have
received from the Lord." So Paul in saying that the Lord himself
is the institutor of the memorial supper which he taught them to
observe and though Paul was not then an apostle and he was not
then in the upper room with the Lord and with the others, did
not personally accompany with the Lord during his three-year
earthly ministry, yet it is his claim that he had a revelation
of the gospel directly from the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As John Eady said, the one medium
of it was divine revelation. And that revelation came from
and through Christ. Thus, Paul establishes a principle. Only that must be done and only
that must be taught which is sanctioned by the authority of
Christ and the Word of God. Christ, the head of the church,
and we are to follow His authority and the Word of God. And that
only is to be done and practiced which is taught us in that blessed
Word. Paul not only tells us that the
Lord Jesus Christ instituted the supper, he also tells them
and us when the Lord instituted the memorial. And it was in verse
23, if you notice, that very night in which he was betrayed,
on the last night of his life, even as the betrayer was, as
it were, exposed and went out to betray the Lord of glory into
the hand of sinners. Matthew 26, 45. Mark 14 and verse
41. This is one of the last things
that the Lord Jesus Christ did during His lifetime, on the very
night before He was crucified upon the cross. He did it before
he was taken to be put to death. He instituted the memorial supper
of the Lord using the two elements that we have already referred
to. Number one, he took bread. No doubt again, some of that
bread, unleavened bread, upon the table for the Passover supper. Gil called it an emblem of his
body and the assumption of human nature. The bread represented
that. Having taken the bread into his
hand, he blessed it or he prayed, and then he broke it into pieces. He parted a piece of the broken
bread to each one of those there with him at the table. And yet
they ate not to satisfy their hunger, for they had already
partaken of the Passover supper. It was not to stifle any bodily
appetite, nor was it as a dessert, but it was fellowship with their
master and the institution of the supper. Secondly, he said,
it is a symbol of the body of the Lord saying, this is my body,
take and eat. Luke 22 and verse 19 has it.
This is my body given for you. And in the breaking of this bread,
it typified the torment and the suffering, the bruising and the
beating endured in the body of our Lord, though a bone of him
was not to be broken, that he might better answer the type
of the Passover lamb, John 19 and verse 36. And yet was his
body bruised and beaten and chastised. His flesh was
laid open from the beating. His side was pierced with a spear
from one of the soldiers. Thorns were pressed down upon
his brow. His hands and his feet were pierced
with the nails. And he was wounded for our transgressions. Isaiah 53 and verse 5. In fact,
that one verse from Isaiah mentions, notice, four things in that one
verse, Isaiah 53 and 5. Wounded, bruised, chastised,
and striped upon our Lord. He was cut off out of the land
of the living. He died a violent and a horrible
death upon the cross, even the death of a criminal. The death
our Lord died was that of a criminal. Calvin put it, he suffered the
punishment of death in its cruelest form, unquote, yet him being
personally holy who made sin that knew no sin. He had no sin
but was made sin. When he says in giving the bread,
this is my body, for only a heretic would claim that the bread literally
actually became the body of the Lord. It is figurative. It is
a symbol to represent the body of the Lord in which he suffered
and which he died. The bread is an emblem of the
body of the Lord. At no point does the bread actually,
literally, really become the body of Christ, and it does not
convey grace into those that eat. He adds, this is my body
given for you. Paul says in Ephesians 5 and
2, who gave himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God
for a sweet-smelling savor. Gave Himself a sacrifice for
the sins of His people. But then the Lord used another
element in the supper also in instituting it. And in verse
25 of our text, 1 Corinthians 11, Paul therefore speaks that
it was after this manner also the cup. It contains some of
the wine used in the Passover meal and it gave the significance
of the cup. It represented the blood of Jesus,
which is called the blood of the New Covenant or Testament. As we remember, The blood of
the old covenant was the blood of beasts, of bulls and goats
and such like, while the blood of the new and the everlasting
covenant is the blood of Jesus, who is the Lamb of God. It is
the blood of redemption. It is the blood of remission. It is blood that our Lord shed
to bring the covenant to fruition and make the air sure of the
airship. But Paul, in speaking of both
the bread and the cup, quotes the Lord as saying, do this in
remembrance of me. And in verse 26, if you will
look, Paul makes an application for the sake of the Corinthians. As often as you eat this bread
and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death until He come. That is, Gil said, the design
of the institution of the supper is to declare that Christ died
for the sins of His people and shed His blood for them. to represent
Him as crucified and then in the supper to bring to remembrance
His suffering and His death. If you might pardon the short
digression, but it was the same principle with the Passover which
Israel was to keep as a memorial of their deliverance from Egyptian
bondage. And in Exodus 12 and 14 it says,
for a memorial and throughout your generations." And they were
to use it as an opportunity to teach their children what it
was all about and what God had done. Exodus 13.8 and Exodus
13.14 through 16. It was a teachable moment, if
we may use that expression, that when their children asked them,
what does this mean? Why, Mommy and Daddy, are you
doing this? What is the meaning of all of
this? And they were to tell them the
blessed story of their Egyptian deliverance. of the overthrow
of Pharaoh, how God freed them from their Egyptian bondage and
brought them out. That's the end of the digression.
Even so, the Lord's Supper Children are curious and at that point
may be told that it represents or reminds us of the body and
the blood of our Lord and of His death at the cross. I've
seen little children so inquisitive when it's all over to run to
the front and put their noses in the cup and look at it. They
want to get a good close-up look of their inquisitive and so we
teach them this reminds us Jesus died for us. He shed his blood
for us. He died that he might put away
our sin. Now in summation, the Lord's
Supper is kept as a remembrance, as a memorial, as a showing forth
and remembering the death of Christ and is restricted to those
who have a saving interest in Christ. For if one knows not
Christ, what interest have they then in the supper? It would
seem from verse 30 of our text that the Lord had sent some temporal
judgment upon some of them there incarnate, some bodily affliction,
some infirmity, some were even dead, perhaps as a judgment of
their abuse and irreverence at the supper of the Lord. Thus
Paul counsels them to take a more serious view of the supper, to
examine themselves whether they have proper views of the death
of the Lord Jesus Christ, whether they eat or drink in faith and
remembrance of Him, whether they believe His death to be the one
and only proper ground of the salvation of their souls, and
whether their sins are repented of and are taken away Paul strongly reproves them for
the unworthy way they kept the supper, that it was not even
worth the name of the supper of the Lord. Now, two things
about it in shutting down. Number one, its main purpose
is to show for the death of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Eat it in remembrance of me,
remember my body. Drink it in remembrance of me,
my blood, shed for you and for many for the remission of sin. And the second thing is that
it is A standing ordinance in the church of the Lord. Only
Christ had the power and authority to institute it. And only Christ
has the authority and the power to abolish it. So it is a standing
ordinance in the church. An ordinance of Christ Himself
on the last night of His life before He died upon the cross. It is strange and wonderful the
Lord did not wait until after he was dead and risen again to
institute this supper, but he did it in connection with the
Passover. That one ended and this memorial
came in its place. So it is a memorial of the supper
of the death of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.