THE LORD’S SUPPER
Sermon Text: 1 Corinthians 11:23-32. For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes. Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.
Lord, this is Your Word and these are Your words. Sanctify us by the truth; Your Word is truth. Amen.
Dear people loved by God in Christ: I bring you grace and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
St. Paul says that the Words of Institution, the words of Jesus, are what “I received from the Lord … which I also delivered to you.” Paul wasn’t in the Upper Room on this night with the apostles, and as a Pharisee he persecuted the church; but after his conversion on the road to Damascus, he received direct communication from the ascended Lord Jesus, which included these words, “This is My body …” etc.
So this is the Lord’s Supper, in that it comes from the Lord Jesus and it belongs to Him. When He says, “Take, eat; this is My body,” and “This is … My blood … Drink it,” He is inviting you to His Supper. It is the Lord’s, but He invites you to have it too. It is His Supper but He is giving it to you, for you to share in it and enjoy His blessings.
Like many wonderful gifts, this too can be misused. The Giver can be forgotten, especially when He is not seen or is hidden in some way, like Jesus is in His Supper. It’s the reason for St. Paul’s words here.
Hear what he says to these Christians in Corinth: “You come together not for the better but for the worse. For when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you … Therefore when you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper.” (1Co 11:18ff)
There were divisions, meaning they didn’t believe the same, yet came to the Lord’s Supper together. They forgot Jesus when they came, acted like He wasn’t there. Paul says God judges their eating to be “not the Lord’s Supper.”
This still happens. Sometimes people think they should be admitted to the Lord’s Supper even if they attend churches that believe or teach differently than the one where they want to commune. Or people are engaging in sinful actions, and aren’t sorry for the sins or aren’t willing to leave the sinful activity, yet still expect to be at the Lord’s Supper despite their unrepentance.
We have to judge this the way St. Paul did: a person who is admitted improperly to the Lord’s Supper does eat and drink Jesus’ true body and blood, but as St. Paul says, he “eats and drinks judgment to himself” (like Judas, who partook of the Lord’s Supper while planning to sin); and rather than being made innocent of their sins by receiving God’s forgiveness in the Lord’s Supper, the person is “guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.” The Lord’s Supper doesn’t make them better, but worse.
Are we thinking of others and their sins? We have to think of our own. That’s the first part of preparing to come to the Lord’s Supper: to ask if you are sorry for your sins, because that’s why you come: to be forgiven. But it is also part of being properly prepared to be sure that we all believe and confess the same things. Sometimes you can sin in your attitude toward this.
We get tempted to feel embarrassed by closed communion. You can be guilty of thinking: it would be easier for the church to grow if it weren’t this way! How much more comfortable we’d feel. This is a lack of faith, trying to control the way people receive God’s teachings and gifts. It’s a sin – not trusting the Lord in His Supper, us being lords over His Supper. Our sinful flesh wants permission to do as we please and pretend God is OK with it.
To come to the Lord’s Supper in this spirit is forgetting the Lord Jesus when you come. It’s disrespecting Him, acting as if He isn’t there. We act as if it is not His Supper. It’s imposing conditions on Him. It’s misusing His gift.
This teaching about the Lord’s Supper from St. Paul comes in the midst of sinful impulses! But isn’t that the way it is? Any teaching the Lord is going to give us has to come in the midst of sin. We’re sinners who get corrupted by our surroundings. We don’t know how to enjoy gifts. Like Peter we don’t sit contentedly to be served, we say “Don’t You wash me!”, you want to do all the work to make life good, but you’ll never find peace that way.
But: the Lord Jesus loves you. “I received [this] from the Lord,” Paul says. From Him. With instructions to “deliver it to you.” Isn’t that love? He knows what you’re like and still He institutes His Supper and gives His words to the apostles to be delivered to such sinners as you.
This is Jesus forgiving you when you are embarrassed by what His Word requires. This is Jesus not forgetting you when you forget Him. This is Jesus not turning away from your tears but embracing you. This is Jesus not giving up on you when you’ve gone the way of compromise with the world. He doesn’t reject you. He comes to you. He wants His Supper to come to you. He wants Himself (in His body and blood) brought to you.
He wants His body to be one with you, so that your body of sin can be made pure by His flesh. He has given His words, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you,” to be spoken over the bread and to be delivered and spoken to you as an invitation.
He wants His blood to wash you clean of the sins you’ve done, and to wash you clean from the sins others have done to you. So He has given His words, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood … drink it,” to be spoken over the wine and delivered to you as an invitation.
In His Supper Jesus comes to you. He isn’t worried about how you will handle it. It does not depend on you. He will do the work in you. He welcomes you with open arms. It is not only the Lord’s Supper. It is the Supper of Him who makes Himself your Lord and you His child.
Here He forgives, cleanses, heals, and purifies you. Here He cares for you. Here He gives you the gift of faith, the gift of love, the gift of joy. Here He nourishes you, fills you, and gives you everything you need. Here He gives you the ability to forgive and to love. Here He forms you, reforms you, builds and creates and makes you as He wants you to be.
Here He makes you one with Him, and He is one with you. Here He makes His Church one, He builds and makes His Church. We as His Church are truly together, truly one, not by what we do but only as we together contentedly receive from Him. We let Him do what He will with us. Thus we are truly made one with Him, our Lord, who loves us, and thus we are one with each other, truly together, truly a church, His Church. Amen!