Prayer Meeting 5/9/2023

The Lord’s Supper

1 Corinthians 11:23-34

Our puritan prayer tonight is from the ‘Valley of Vision’, page 360 in the leatherback version, and p197 in the paperback. This prayer alone will teach you about communion.

GOD OF ALL GOOD, I bless thee for the means of grace; teach me to see in them thy loving purposes and the joy and strength of my soul. Thou hast prepared for me a feast; and though I am unworthy to sit down as guest, I wholly rest on the merits of Jesus, and hide myself beneath his righteousness; When I hear his tender invitation and see his wondrous grace, I cannot hesitate, but must come to thee in love. By thy Spirit enliven my faith rightly to discern and spiritually to apprehend the Saviour. While I gaze upon the emblems of my Saviour's death, may I ponder why he died, and hear him say, I gave my life to purchase yours, presented myself an offering to expiate your sin, shed my blood to blot out your guilt, opened my side to make you clean, endured your curses to set you free, bore your condemnation to satisfy divine justice. O may I rightly grasp the breadth and length of this design, draw near, obey, extend the hand, take the bread, receive the cup, eat and drink, testify before all men that I do for myself, gladly, in faith, reverence and love, receive my Lord, to be my life, strength, nourishment, joy, delight. In the supper I remember his eternal love, boundless grace, infinite compassion, agony, cross, redemption, and receive assurance of pardon, adoption life, glory. As the outward elements nourish my body, so may thy indwelling Spirit invigorate my soul, until that day when I hunger and thirst no more, and sit with Jesus at his heavenly feast. 

Well this evening, I want to do something a bit different from the normal format, where we normally walk through and draw wisdom from a teaching from the puritans. However, I and the elders have felt it would be a good time, and due to some conversations, to talk for a night on the institution of the Lord’s supper, and how we ought to approach it.

I know we talk of it each month, and have spoken at length on it over the last few years, as it has become a huge part of who we are as a church. It is without doubt one of the most important things we do here at Hope United. It’s something we do not take lightly, nor should we. However, I think in our monthly communion services, I think some people, or indeed all of the congregation still need to have more clarity on this vital sacrament.

I believe a church that understands the Lord’s table, and Holy Communion, and adheres to it, is one of the greatest signs of a healthy bible based church.

So firstly: What is the Lord’s supper?

Well, although we are in First Corinthians, I believe the clearest teaching is from here. However, we won’t be at chapter eleven for another, who knows, a year or so away, maybe sooner.

I’m not going to exegete the passage. We will do that when we get to it. It would take weeks to do so. Let me just give an overview from what was going on in Corinth however. That will help us understand the Lord’s table more, hopefully.

In the early church the Lord’s table was a celebration meal; a gathering of believers to fellowship in a remembrance service.

Greek: Κοινωνία – Kiononia - To fellowship, to join and participate in intimacy.

It was known as the ‘agape meal’, or the ‘love feast’. This was what we read in the book of Acts:

Acts 2:46

So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart,

This act was at the very centre of all they did. It was something that was done with such love and togetherness. This was how they worshipped. This gladness was not a shallow happiness. It was a deep, powerful, holy-powerful joy.

Greek: ἀγαλλίασις- agalayasis - An extreme joy of celebrating divine power.

This part is mostly gone from church now, and we now have the communion service, or Lord’s supper - the eucharist. But in the early church, they were deeply joined - and for me we are the worse off for it. In Corinth they certainly were worse off - as there was much division.

You see how having something against your brother really damages communion - to the point that there was no holiness, it was just an over self-indulging meal.

Most scholars believe that First Corinthians was written before the gospels. So this account of the Lord’s Supper was more than likely the first account of this. So when Paul says in the first verse we will read, ‘for I received from the Lord’, he isn’t meaning second-hand info, he is meaning Jesus taught him this first-hand, even though he was not in the upper room on that fateful Thursday night.

I love also that Jesus chose, on the very night he would be betrayed, the worst night of His life, to institute the greatest service a believer could ever hope for. On His worst night, He instituted the greatest sacrament a believer could ever encounter: a remembrance service.

A ‘getting us all on track again service’. A realigning service. A ‘grace and mercy being renewed’ service. An ‘I chose you’ service. An intimate ‘I love so much I died for you’ service. An ‘I am taking all your sins and shame’ remembrance service. An ‘I am going to conquer death so you can reign with Me in heaven’ remembrance service. A ‘you are cleansed through My body and blood’ remembrance service.

All done on the night that Jesus was about to be betrayed, on the very night He was agonising in the garden, being pressed to an inch of His life, as the Father departed from Him.

On that night Jesus chose to institute this most amazing gift of a Passover service, a new covenant Passover service. That we who are His, would, as often as we meet, take part in this heavenly sacrifice. That we would never forget that we are cleansed and have eternity with God as our promise, only through Him and what He done for us.

1 Corinthians 11:23-26

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.

It’s a commemoration service. What is a commemoration service? It’s a service, an institution that commemorates the death of someone. This someone is Christ our Lord. It’s a remembrance service. But not just a remembrance. As john Murray writes:

It’s not simply a recollection that the death took place, and not simply a remembrance of its focal place in the accomplishment of redemption. It’s a celebration. It’s an event in which we give glory.

Murray says there are only two memorial ordinances in the new testament:

…the Lord’s supper and the Lords day. One celebrates the Lord’s death (the Lord’s supper) and the other the Lord’s resurrection (the Lord’s day)…

He adds:

These are the two pivotal events of redemption.

It’s a Passover meal, a celebration of Jesus becoming our sacrificial lamb. 400 years earlier the mosaic Passover was done through animals sacrifice, the lamb was sacrificed, and God’s wrath was passed over from the people.

Jesus’ Passover meal, the new covenant Passover, is the perfect Passover, where the Son of God was sacrificed, so God’s wrath would pass over us, and onto Him; the ultimate sacrificial lamb.

Charles Hodge writes:

The Lord’s supper is a commemoration of Christ’s death, not only because it was designed for that purpose , but also because the bread and wine are significant symbols of his broken body and shed blood.

The Approach:

1 Corinthians 11:27-34

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. Therefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest you come together for judgment. And the rest I will set in order when I come.

The proper and improper manner. What would be an improper manner? Well before we go into more detail, let me first again quote Hodge:

To eat or drink unworthily is in general to come to the Lord’s table in a careless, irreverent spirit, without the intention or desire to commemorate the death of Christ as the sacrifice for our sins.

This is why we must first examine ourselves. Making sure, as hodge says, that we are in the proper frame of mind. Often we can be anything but in the proper frame of mind.

How you were during the week is not the main factor. How you are during the remembrance service is vital however - where we need to look at our lives and conduct.

An unprepared, unrepentant heart has no place at the Lord’s table. Not the same as a repentant heart that hasn’t been great. But an unrepentant heart.

Some leave the table every week to return to the exact behaviour as they had before they came. One of strife, of sin, of slander, of irreverence. This is not a repentant heart. To do so, is to carry that sin and judgement on yourself. Therefore it is to severely displease God.

Christ who took our sins and shame upon Himself, by God’s degree, is taken, in effect, as if it’s no different from any other food and drink we put in our body. The guilt that He took, the sin that He took, is back on us. The judgement of God is back on us.

This verse, verse 30, is a very detailed and important verse. And sobering. Because it is not a ‘warning’ verse. It’s a ‘fact’ verse.

1 Corinthians 11:30

For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.

It’s not a scare-tactic, or a motivation statement. It’s simply a fact. The judgement of God is no joke.

If you’re weak, and by weak, we mean weak in faith, weak in your relationship with God, weak in your inability to yield to temptation and sin. Weak in your devotion life, weak in your loose tongue, weak in your inability to forgive, or not gossip. If you’re weak in your anger, or bitterness, or your ability to be kind, or gracious.

All these weaknesses are result of God’s judgement on you, but more - they are evidence of your separation from God, and how His grace and mercy has departed from you. And how you have started to take, or always took, the Lord’s table lightly.

If you’re saved, then this will be predominantly due to how you approach communion, which is in turn how your relationship is with the Lord, and how you view Christ and the cross. A joyless Christian, has no understanding of the true gift of communion.

The next thing Paul writes is ‘sick’. The reason many are sick, is the same reasons as I’ve said above: anger, undealt with sin, unforgiveness, bitterness, comparing, judging - carrying all your own baggage will make us sicker and sicker.

How can we not become sicker when keep carrying our sinful flesh around all day?

When we see believers having no sense of repentance, no sense of Godly sorrow, no sense of our own failings and  sins, then that person is going to be a sick person. The body and the blood of Jesus has no cleansing flow in their lives.

They are sick due to them not realising how sick they are, and how much they refuse the Great Physician.

To take communion in an unworthy manner is to say: ‘I don’t need Jesus to heal me, I don’t need Jesus to cleanse me. I’m alright. What He did for Me, is no big deal, I don’t need that sacrifice.’

This is why examining ourselves is not about us, but remembering again, how much we still need Him. And remembering, we are only free through Him.

Even those that say they are not alright, still at times have no humility to look intently at how sinful they really are. No wonder they seem to get sicker and sicker.

Or as G. Cambell Morgan writes:

The reason of their failure is that many are weak and sick or infirm… ...Because their failure to come to the feast with due preparation, and observe it in its true way.

Have you ever noticed how wicked people seem to always be really ill? Their wickedness manifests into every organ of their body, and they are in fact being killed by sin.

The last one is ‘sleep’. When Paul writes ‘sleep’, he doesn’t mean asleep. Nor does he mean sleep, as in not being aware, or ignorant. He simply means dead.

Such sin as grieving the Holy Spirit, can lead to death. Ananias and Sapphira were put to death for lying to the Holy Spirit. These were of course severe examples. But none the less, this is sometimes what God did, to them in Corinth.

I think what John Murray says on our obedience about communion is maybe one of the most profound things I’ve read.

Murray says:

It is obedience that you come to the Lord’s table, not because you are worthy nor because you boast of your fidelity (faithfulness) but because you dare not deny him in whom your interests are invested, and to whom you must pay allegiance as the Lord of your hope and destiny.

Amen.