Communion Matters

Kevin M. Adams

1 Corinthians • Sermon • Submitted 9 months ago • Presented 9 months ago

1 Corinthians 11:17–34

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White Blood Cells (Yancey & Brand).

Intrusions have occured int the body and the Corinthians have not noticed. Oh, they’ve seen some of the effects - some people are sick, some haven’t joined them lately, a few have even died - but they don’t recognize the severity of the problem or the source.

Church is your Body (11:17-22)

1 Corinthians 11:17–22 CSB

17 Now in giving this instruction I do not praise you, since you come together not for the better but for the worse. 18 For to begin with, I hear that when you come together as a church there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it. 19 Indeed, it is necessary that there be factions among you, so that those who are approved may be recognized among you. 20 When you come together, then, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper. 21 For at the meal, each one eats his own supper. So one person is hungry while another gets drunk! 22 Don’t you have homes in which to eat and drink? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What should I say to you? Should I praise you? I do not praise you in this matter!

Internal Divisions (11:17-19)

Socioeconomic: Rich/Poor contra last week’s gender confusion.

Lack of concern and care for the poor and marginalized. Quite the contrary to the amount of time Jesus spent with both the marginalized and the poor.

Individual Dining (11:20-22)

We miss much of the significance of the problem in the Corinthian church when it comes to the Lord’s Supper because (1) we don’t practice it in the same manner they did, and (2) we aren’t quite as obvious in our discrimination most of the time.

Manner: It was part of a full meal. It was table-fellowship. It was the central part of the table-fellowship.

Meals in antiquity, most of the world outside the West, and even in America in earlier times - the table was a place of fellowship not just a recharging station.

When God’s messengers came to Abraham, before going to Lot, they ate together.

When God met with Moses, they ate together.

When Jesus met people, he ate with them. He was called a friend of sinners and a glutton - because he was eating with people. He was associating with people. Earlier in 1 Cor, in chapt 5 table-fellowship is excluded for those who claim to believe but don’t behave in an honorable way. They are excluded from the table-fellowship because of unrepentant sin.

1 Corinthians 5:11–13 CSB

11 But actually, I wrote you not to associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister and is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or verbally abusive, a drunkard or a swindler. Do not even eat with such a person. 12 For what business is it of mine to judge outsiders? Don’t you judge those who are inside? 13 God judges outsiders. Remove the evil person from among you.

Iniquity Dominates (11:20-22)

The internal divisions (socioeconomic) and Individual dining (also mostly socioeconomic) simply produced an environment where Iniquity Dominates. For the same reason that there were internal divisions there was also sin. The root of this was all self-centered rather than other-centered.

They needed to go back to 1 Cor 1 and be reminded that everything they have is from God - a gift of grace, not to be flaunted or selfishly consumed upon themselves but to be shared with others to benefit others.

There was a loss of understanding that as Christ was the Head of the Body, the Church was the rest of the Body.

There was a loss of appreciation for Christ’s Body, the Church. It wasn’t just that formalism had set it, no they had not simply become set in their routine or in their ways so to speak - although there were surely wrapped up in their own way. Rather, they were missing the entire point of the koinonia. They were white blood cells who were simply concerned with themselves, leaving the body to deteriorate or be without a defender. They were couch potatoes asking for another plate of food.

Whether it was because the lower class had to work longer hours, were unable to contribute as much, or simply because they were less well off, the very people who should have been helping them were ignoring and sidelining them. The very people who should have been pulling them closer to the table were pushing them away from the table.

Paul hears of this and like a captain of the third regiment he jumps into actions, trying to stem the hole in the body, stem the intrusive heart posture before it’s too late and the whole body is sick. Paul can see what their fat eyes are too sleepy to see. Trouble is on the horizon. Jesus had said when you cloth the naked, take care of the destitute, be a father to the fatherless....you have done that for me....Paul can do the math in his head, the Corinthians are abusing the Lord by neglecting the Lord’s people. Trouble is on the horizon.

so the meal for the church at Corinth had become distasteful to God and the table needed to be re-set.

This brings us to the question of why this discrimination and division was such a big deal. Not only was it causing division within the body - Christ’s body. But it was also an affront to Christ himself because He is your bread, He is your nourishment, He is your sustenance. The Corinthians were not only forgetting the poor, the were forgetting the person of Jesus and thus making a mockery of both who Jesus was and what Jesus did.

Christ is your Bread (11:23-26)

During Jesus’ ministry, prior to the last days and the last supper, Jesus made numerous bold statements about who he was. John’s Gospel records some of these and they are known as the I Am statements. There’s 7 of them in John’s Gospel. What is usually considered to be the first of the 7 statements is found in John 6, although technically it might be said there are 8 of these statements because in John 4.26 Jesus claims to be the Messiah to the Samaritan Woman at the Well using similar terminology. But in either case, in John 6, Jesus again makes a similar claim, this time in regard to bread.

John 6:28–36 CSB

28 “What can we do to perform the works of God?” they asked. 29 Jesus replied, “This is the work of God—that you believe in the one he has sent.” 30 “What sign, then, are you going to do so that we may see and believe you?” they asked. “What are you going to perform? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, just as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat.” 32 Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, Moses didn’t give you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 Then they said, “Sir, give us this bread always.” 35 “I am the bread of life,” Jesus told them. “No one who comes to me will ever be hungry, and no one who believes in me will ever be thirsty again. 36 But as I told you, you’ve seen me, and yet you do not believe.

Here, Jesus pulls up the story from the past, God’s miraculous provision of manna, straight out of heaven and likens himself to the new manna from heaven in the current era. He continues by saying

John 6:51–58 CSB

51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” 52 At that, the Jews argued among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life in yourselves. 54 The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day, 55 because my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. 56 The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven; it is not like the manna your ancestors ate—and they died. The one who eats this bread will live forever.”

So here, before the Last Supper (First Supper) Jesus is laying out the necessity of feasting on Him for nourishment and sustenance, not just in this life but for the life to come as well.

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 (CSB)

23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, 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, and said, “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.

We will circle back to the manner in which Christ is our bread in this text but first I want to move to looking at how Christ is our pattern in the Lord’s Supper as well.

Christ your Pattern

The example of Christ in the Passover has become the tradition (teaching) of the churches and to be followed.

1 Cor is actually the earliest written record in Scripture of the Lord’s Supper. It was written most likely before the Gospels, which means it was already an established part of the Christian Community from earliest times.

Christ is the pattern in self-sacrifices

But more than this…when Moses was given the 10 Commandments, God also gave him instructions on the building of the Tabernacle which would later become the Temple. Part of what Moses was to build was the Ark of God’s Presence which would contain the manna, Aaron’s Rod that budded and the 10 Commandments, along with the Golden Lampstand and the Table for the Showbread or Bread of Presence.

Exodus 25:29–30 CSB

29 You are also to make its plates and cups, as well as its pitchers and bowls for pouring drink offerings. Make them out of pure gold. 30 Put the Bread of the Presence on the table before me at all times.

So here Moses is instructed to have bread and wine for the offerings

Leviticus 24:8–9 CSB

8 The bread is to be set out before the Lord every Sabbath day as a permanent covenant obligation on the part of the Israelites. 9 It belongs to Aaron and his sons, who are to eat it in a holy place, for it is the holiest portion for him from the food offerings to the Lord; this is a permanent rule.”

This most holy meal was to be eaten weekly by the priests in a most holy ceremony in a most holy place to the most holy of all. This occurred week after week after week for thousands of years except for the hundreds of years when they were in Exile. And then Jesus comes along and says’s He is the bread and His blood is the new covenant.

Christ your Passover

The Passover was both a memorial meal, reflecting back on what God had done for His people in the past and an expectation of what He was still going to do, in sending a Messiah and ushering in His Kingdom. The Passover of Exodus was held on the 14/15th of Nissan (Spring/Easter time) remembering the Exodus from Egypt (Ex 12; Lev 9.1-5; Deu 16.1-8). This was followed by 7 day Feast of Unleavened Bread making for an 8 day celebration. Each element (food) in the ritual was symbolic - as sign posts - reflecting back on the original story and bringing the current participant into the story. Usually, the youngest son would ask “Why is this nigh different from other nights?” and the Father would lead the family through the story of the Exodus as God saved His people from slavery to set them up in a promised land where He would be their King. The annual retelling of this event helped to remind God’s people who they were and who they should continue to be.

As Jesus led his followers through the Passover as their Rabbi/Teacher He infused new meaning into the significant event, changing it for all time for both Jew and Gentile alike. Jesus becomes the bread from heaven (John 6) and His blood becomes the blood of the new covenant. The meal becomes a second exodus of freedom ushering in a new age. Christ Himself is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, being the fulfillment of all the OT Passover pointed to.

Let me show you a closer look at this....go with me to the book of Exodus

After God had given Moses the 10 Commandments (Exo 20.1-17)

Exodus 20:21 CSB

21 And the people remained standing at a distance as Moses approached the total darkness where God was.

Exodus 24:1 CSB

1 Then he said to Moses, “Go up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of Israel’s elders, and bow in worship at a distance.

Exodus 24:3–8 CSB

3 Moses came and told the people all the commands of the Lord and all the ordinances. Then all the people responded with a single voice, “We will do everything that the Lord has commanded.” 4 And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. He rose early the next morning and set up an altar and twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel at the base of the mountain. 5 Then he sent out young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed bulls as fellowship offerings to the Lord. 6 Moses took half the blood and set it in basins; the other half of the blood he splattered on the altar. 7 He then took the covenant scroll and read it aloud to the people. They responded, “We will do and obey all that the Lord has commanded.” 8 Moses took the blood, splattered it on the people, and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you concerning all these words.”

Exodus 24:10–11 CSB

10 and they saw the God of Israel. Beneath his feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as clear as the sky itself. 11 God did not harm the Israelite nobles; they saw him, and they ate and drank.

Moses leaves Aaron and the others and God calls him to come up with him, along with Joshua.

Exodus 24:13 CSB

13 So Moses arose with his assistant Joshua and went up the mountain of God.

Exodus 24:16–18 CSB

16 The glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days. On the seventh day he called to Moses from the cloud. 17 The appearance of the Lord’s glory to the Israelites was like a consuming fire on the mountaintop. 18 Moses entered the cloud as he went up the mountain, and he remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

Christ your Priest

Christ Himself is our high priest (Hebrews), being the fulfillment of all that Moses and all other leaders pointed to.

Christ is the mediator of a new covenant anticipated in Exo, Jer 31.31, Isa, etc. Christ offers both his body and his blood as the atoning sacrifice, just as the millions of prior animals had been offered but this time as the Gospels tell us and as Paul points out in Corinthians, it is a once for all, once and done deal. As Moses sprinkled the blood of the animals on the people in Exodus, so too the blood of Jesus is sprinkled metaphorically on us.

Confession is your Balm (11:27-34)

1 Corinthians 11:27–34 CSB

27 So, then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sin against the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Let a person examine himself; in this way let him eat the bread and drink from the cup. 29 For whoever eats and drinks without recognizing the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30 This is why many are sick and ill among you, and many have fallen asleep. 31 If we were properly judging ourselves, we would not be judged, 32 but when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined, so that we may not be condemned with the world. 33 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, when you come together to eat, welcome one another. 34 If anyone is hungry, he should eat at home, so that when you gather together you will not come under judgment. I will give instructions about the other matters whenever I come.

Judge yourself to avoid the judgment of God

Confess your neglect of the poor

Confess your self-centered ways

Confess your sin but don’t let it keep you from Christ. Run to him, not from him.

You are invited to the feast.

Invitation

Communion

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