In part 2 of 1 Corinthians 11, Paul instructs the Corinthian church regarding the importance of the Lord’s supper.
Wes
Welcome to the Two Journeys Bible Study podcast. This podcast is just one of the many resources available to you for free from Two Journeys Ministry. If you’re interested in learning more, just head over to twojourneys.org.
Now on to today’s episode. This is part two of episode 15 in our 1 Corinthians Bible study podcast. This episode is entitled Godly Order in the Public Worship of the Church, where we’ll continue our discussion in 1 Corinthians 11, specifically looking at verses 17-34. I’m Wes Treadway and I’m here with Pastor Andy Davis. Andy, what are we going to see in these verses that we’re looking at today?
Andy
Well, this is one of the most familiar parts of the entire book of 1 Corinthians. It’s the part that addresses the Lord’s Supper, and anyone who is a regular attender at a Christian worship service will have heard what we call the words of institution over and over again. Well, today we’re going to walk through the chapter and some of the problems the Corinthians were having concerning the Lord’s Supper and Paul’s addressing of those problems and the timeless lessons that come from that.
Wes
Well, let me go ahead and read verses 17 through 34 as we begin.
But in the following instructions, I do not commend you, because when you come together, it is not for the better but for the worse. For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part, for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not.
For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.
Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.
So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another – if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home – so that when you come together, it will not be for judgment. About the other things, I will give directions when I come.
Andy, what was going on that caused Paul to be so critical of the Corinthians concerning their observance of the Lord’s Supper?
Andy
Well, we see right away in verse 17 he says, “When you come together, there are divisions among you.” And so, this was the problem right from the get-go in this book, I mean the factions and divisions, “I follow Paul, I follow Apollos, I follow Cepheus,” and there’s all these warring factions. And this meal of the Lord’s supper that should be uniting them, actually exacerbated their divisions. There was some really bad behavior that was going on concerning the Lord’s supper, but in a beautiful way, the Holy Spirit, using those immediate and temporary circumstances in one local church gives us the epistle and these instructions that end up being timeless instructions throughout 20 centuries of Christians addressing issues of the Lord’s supper. So, the immediate circumstance was bad behavior by the Corinthians in their factions and divisions and some other issues that we’re going to talk about that are really bad, such as getting drunk on Lord’s supper wine and things like that. But again, the words that the Holy Spirit moved Paul to write end up timeless instructions for us all.
Wes
What did the fact that they weren’t waiting for each other show about this disunity and what other sins were happening?
Andy
Right. So, they were very selfish, self-focused. One would just run on ahead and just grab some. Let’s imagine there were just the two elements, which is bread and wine. So, the people are showing up there and they’re hungry. They hadn’t eaten, let’s say, but they’re not poverty-stricken. Paul says, “Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in?” I mean really, it’s not a restaurant. This is a worship service. These are symbolic things. It’s not here to fill your stomach. And so, they were gorging themselves on bread leaving nothing for anyone that followed them. So like bullies, are edging themselves forward and then even worse, some of them were literally getting drunk on Lord’s supper wine. And so, these are some of the problems and maybe there was some bickering and conflicts and maybe even some fights that were breaking out egged on by the wine. And so just a very bad scene.
Wes
You mentioned a moment ago that Paul speaks of the homes that they had to eat and drink in. What does Paul mean by reminding them of that, and why was Paul so upset with them about all of this that we’ve been talking about?
Andy
I think what he’s trying to help them to see is that this is a symbolic spiritual ordinance. It is not for the meeting of your nutritional needs. So, when he says, “Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in,” he means in order to get enough calories for the day, in order to get enough energy to do your work, eat at home. That’s not what this is about. This is a spiritual meal. Yeah, it’s physical, it’s literal bread and literal wine that was chewed and swallowed, no doubt about that. But it wasn’t to meet your daily requirement for nourishment. So, when he said, “Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in,” he means that’s where you should be meeting those needs, this is for something else.
Wes
Now, as you mentioned, verses 23-26 are timeless verses used in churches all over the world as the words of institution for the Lord’s supper. What do they teach us about this ordinance?
Andy
Okay, so you walked through them. He said, “For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you.” Now on the night he was betrayed, Paul wasn’t there. He wasn’t a believer at that point. He was at that point a Pharisee and a pawn, a ladder-climbing pawn of the Sanhedrin and of the Jewish career that he was pursuing, which he describes, and we have so much information about. So, he wasn’t there. What he knows about the Lord’s supper, he received by revelation from the Holy Spirit as he did the other things he wrote about in his other epistles. So, he received this from the Lord and then passed it on to the Corinthians. They weren’t there either. They were Gentiles living in Greece, and he told them what happened, and then he walks through it here. “On the night that the Lord Jesus was betrayed, he took bread and when he had broken it, he gave thanks,” et cetera.
So, he brings us to that night, it’s called the Last Supper, also called the Lord’s supper, but it’s the Last Supper and it was a Passover meal, the feast of unleavened bread. And Jesus said ahead of time, he had earnestly desired to eat this meal, Passover meal, with them before he suffered. And so, this was part of him being a law-abiding Jew. Three times a year, the Jewish men were called on to assemble together at the place where God chose, which is Jerusalem. And they would observe three different feasts and the feast of unleavened bread or Passover was one of them. And Jesus earnestly desired to have that time together. It was a meal that they had together. And so that night while they were gathering together, and Paul identifies it here as the night he was betrayed.
So, it reminds us of the seriousness of that night, speaking of Judas Iscariot, and betrayed unto death. It was a very serious somber memorial, a somber remembrance. He said, “The night the Lord Jesus was betrayed, he took bread. And when he had given thanks…” Now the Greek word for giving thanks is eucharistia from which we get the word Eucharist. That’s just a transliteration of the Greek verb to give thanks. Now this was the regular pattern. Jesus, when he fed the 5,000, he took bread, and he looked up to heaven and gave thanks. And so, it was a sense of giving thanks to God for the actual bread. Then he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” The breaking of the bread represents Jesus’ death. Jesus died, so also will the wine as Jesus’ blood represent his death as well.
So, the breaking of his body, we should not understand that his bones were broken. That was forbidden. The Passover lamb, not a single bone would be broken, and Jesus’ bones also were not broken, but his body ceased to function. It was broken, so to speak, by death. And so, the breaking of the bread was a representation of that. And he said, “This is my body, which is for you.” The idea is, “My death is spiritual food for you. My death is nourishment for you,” the very point he will make or he had made earlier in John 6 when he said, “The true bread that comes down from heaven is the Son of Man and my flesh, which I give for the life of the world” (John 6:51). Now what he means is, “My death will be your life.” He’s not meaning a literal feeding on the body of Christ.
And we need to understand, there’s lots of traditions that are connected with the Lord’s supper for different ways of looking at the Lord’s supper. One of them is real presence. Roman Catholics call it transubstantiation, the Lutherans call it consubstantiation, but you have the real presence, either the somehow mystically the bread and wine literally and spiritually become the body and blood of Jesus. That’s what Roman Catholics believe, or by what they call transubstantiation, which is a philosophical understanding coming from Aristotle, the Greek philosopher. I don’t want to get into all that, but that’s what it means. And then consubstantiation, the Lutheran view was also a real presence, viewed as actual body and blood, but not by transubstantiation. Luther just punted on how it happened. He just said, “It’s a mystery, but it’s real presence.” Then you’ve got Ulrich Zwingli that came along and went exactly the opposite direction and said, “It’s nothing more than bread and wine. That’s all it is.”
And so, it’s a bare memorial, just helps us to remember. And so, he tended to minimalize it, and that was typical of Zwingli, he stripped everything down and kept everything absolutely as simple as possible. That was what the reformed, so to speak, Zwinglian churches did. And then you’ve got Calvin’s view, which is my view, John Calvin’s view, which I call the spiritual presence. And basically, it’s not a bare memorial. It’s certainly not literal body and blood of Jesus, but what it is is a very important and impactful experience we have in proportion to our faith, in proportion to our believing in the word of God. So, we actually have in the elements, an encounter with the living God, but not in the sense that it’s actually the body and blood of Jesus. It’s a spiritual presence in proportion to our faith.
That’s my view. At any rate, Jesus, when he took this, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you.” And then in the same way after supper, he took the cup, part two, and he said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” So, let’s take this statement, this zeroes in on what the author of Hebrews tells us and what Leviticus also told us, that the blood is what atones for sins. Without the shedding of blood, there can be no forgiveness. But now he uses the words new covenant. The essence of the new covenant is the once for all bloody sacrifice of Jesus by which our sins are completely forgiven. That is the new covenant, and this is a strong symbol and a reminder of the blood of Jesus shed. As the author of Hebrews tells us, once for all, for us. It is by faith in the blood of Jesus, our sins are forgiven.
“The essence of the new covenant is the once for all bloody sacrifice of Jesus by which our sins are completely forgiven.”
And so that’s what this cup symbolizes. Then with both the bread and with the cup, he says, “Do this in remembrance of me.” Or, “As often as you do this, you are doing this in remembrance of me.” So, he commanded this to be done. That’s why we call it an ordinance. It was ordained by Jesus that we should do this. And then Paul commenting on this says, “Whenever you do this, whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” And so that proclaiming of the Lord’s death is a preaching to onlooking unbelievers who should not be partaking physically, but who might be there watching. And he says, “You’re proclaiming the Lord’s death.” We also proclaim it to each other, reminding ourselves that Jesus died once for all, for all time. So that’s just walking through the verses.
Wes
Andy, I love that word proclaim. It has a sense of speaking a message. There’s a lot that’s going on when we are participating in the Lord’s supper together. You’ve spoken of this idea of looking in a variety of different directions as guiding us during our time of participating in the Lord’s supper, to help us think about what’s going on. Maybe walk us through that and how it helps us think about what’s actually happening as we remember the Lord’s death until He comes.
Andy
Yeah. Sometime ago I heard a preacher organize some of the main concepts of the Lord’s supper in the verb look, and then he used different prepositions to talk about where we should be looking. And the looking is spiritual, but it really sums up a lot of the themes that we just walked through and some others that are in a few other passages. So, first of all, look up to God in thanksgiving. Secondly, look back to Christ’s death, done once for all. Look inward to repent of your sins. It says a man ought to examine himself before he partakes in the Lord’s supper. We’ll get to that in a few minutes but look inward to be certain that there’s no unconfessed sin. Be certain that you’re in Christ. So be serious. Search me, O God, and know me. Look inward. Look around to the family of God, the fact that you are doing it together. It’s not something you do alone as part of your daily quiet time. It’s something you do together with the church.
And Paul will say in another place, “Just as there’s one loaf, so there’s one body of Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:17). So, there’s a sense of partaking all of us together. So, look around at the family of God, brothers and sisters. Look outward to unbelievers. So that’s that proclaiming of the Lord’s death. They should not be partaking, but as we do this, we are mindful of the fact that in the sanctuary where we have worship services, there are going to be unbelievers who are not partaking. But they’re watching and they’re learning. So, look outward and be mindful of those who need to repent and believe in Christ. And then look ahead because it reminds us of the feasting that we’ll be doing in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus said, “I will not drink of this fruit of the vine until that day I drink it anew with you in my father’s kingdom” (Mark 14:25 paraphrase). And even this text says, “We proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes,” so we’re looking ahead to the second coming of Christ. So, look up to God, look back to Christ’s death, look inward in reference to our sins and our spiritual condition. Look around to the body of Christ, look outward to unbelievers, and then look ahead to the second coming into eternity in heaven.
Wes
That’s a helpful framework as we consider these words of institution and what’s going on as we celebrate the Lord’s supper together. Now that look inward is related to the warnings that Paul also gives in these passages. What warnings does Paul give in verses 27-29, and how should we heed these?
Andy
These are very serious words here. He says, “Whoever eats the bread and drinks the cup in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.” Now, those who believe in real presence such as Roman Catholics and the Lutherans and all that, anyone who believes in real presence will zero in on that, you’re actually sinning, truly sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. They considered it blasphemy what some of the Protestant views were rejecting real presence. I don’t think that’s what Paul’s talking about here at all. But instead, the fact, as we’ve said, some of these folks are glutting themselves on Lord’s supper bread and getting drunk on Lord’s supper wine; that is definitely eating and drinking in a manner unworthy of the Lord. So, any of that kind of behavior. And he says, “You’re guilty of sinning against the body and blood of Jesus.” That’s how serious this is.
Now remember he said in the section on meat sacrificed to idols, that those who partake in a pagan worship service are partaking with demons. To speak more positively, those who partake in the Lord’s supper are partaking by the Spirit in the Lord. And so, we have to take this very seriously, very joyfully, yes, but seriously. So, this is a warning to not eat and drink in a manner unworthy of the Lord. And then he says, “A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup.” So even apart from sinning in reference to the Lord’s supper, just what’s going on in your life? It’d be an opportunity for you to repent of known sin. If there’s any flag, red flag that your conscience is putting up, repent. In some cases, it may be individuals refrain from partaking. In other cases, I would say partake but then make certain that you deal properly with the sin in your life because the Lord’s supper will help you to repent.
And so, examine yourself. That’s the look inward. So be very careful to find out what’s going on. So that’s why I think the Lord’s supper is a good opportunity for you to take stock. How am I doing spiritually? And then anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. So same thing like verse 27, that seems to teach real presence, but I don’t think so. I think we’re recognizing the significance of the actual incarnation and the body that was literally, historically, physically nailed to the cross. As the author of Hebrew says, once for all time, never to be repeated. So, we recognize the significance of that, that we’re remembering as we eat and drink.
So, we have to take that very, very seriously. There is no levity, there’s no joking or anything other than a seriousness and a repenting and a believing and a joy. There’s a thanksgiving in it, but that’s how we recognize the body of the Lord. And if not, Paul says very seriously, “You’re eating and drinking judgment on yourself.” Eating and drinking judgment, that’s very, very serious. And then he says shockingly in verse 30, “That’s why a number of you are weak and sick.” In other words, you’re having bodily problems because of the Lord’s supper. “Bet you didn’t know, but I’m a prophet,” Paul’s saying, “I’m a prophet and I’m telling you what your condition is. I’m telling you why you’re weak and sick. And a few of those people that just died, and you don’t know why, I’m telling you, they died.” Paul says, “fallen asleep,” but they’re dead because God struck them dead, Ananias and Sapphira style.
And so, the idea here is that, is how seriously the Lord takes this ordinance. So, because you’ve been disrespectful, that also points to the very important theme in Hebrews 12 of the Lord’s discipline. We ought to take very, very seriously the Lord’s discipline, “Don’t make light of it,” the author of Hebrews says in Hebrews 12. But don’t get discouraged either and get crushed by it. Just say, “All right, we’re going to deal with this properly. We’re going to deal with the Lord’s supper properly. We’re going to do it by faith, with reverence and with repentance and with joy.” So, he says, “That’s why a number of you are weak and falling asleep.” Then he makes a statement, “But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment.” That’s a very important statement, even apart from the Lord’s supper. God waits for us to address our sins vigorously.
He waits for us, and then if we won’t do it, he’ll take care of it. And so, you want to get out ahead of the Lord’s judgment, then say, “Search me, oh God, and know me, and I will deal with the things you bring to me.” If we judge ourselves, God doesn’t have to do it, but if we won’t judge ourselves, he’ll get busy and do things. It’s a warning to us, we’ll not come under judgment. When we are judged by the Lord, we’re being, he says, “disciplined,” so that we will not be condemned for the world. So, a number of those that were weak and sick, and some had fallen asleep, doesn’t mean that they’re condemned to hell. It just means God was dealing with them as children. He was willing to kill some of them so that they would deal seriously and spiritually with the Lord’s supper.
Wes
Andy, what final command does Paul give in verses 33 and 34?
Andy
It says, “When you come together to eat, wait for each other.” So, what that means is be courteous, be thoughtful, be other-centered. Consider others as more important than yourselves, as better than yourselves. Say, “No, no, you go first.” So, there may be a line where they’re standing in Roman Catholic style where they’re going up to receive the bread and the wine. We pass it out in trays, but we have other times that people come and stand in line to wait at tables. We do that occasionally. So, he says, “Wait for each other.” Be courteous to each other. I think the waiting for each other just simply means treat each other with dignity and with respect. Don’t brawl. Don’t argue, push, or shove or push yourself forward. So, wait for each other. And then again, as we’ve already said, if you’re hungry, eat at home. If you’re thirsty, drink at home, that’s not what it’s for, so that you don’t have judgment coming.
Wes
Yeah, it’s amazing. It seems again and again, Paul is aiming at reminding them what the supper is for. It’s not for your own personal gratification, it’s not for your physical sustenance. This is to remind you of the body and blood of Christ, that you might delight in him, remember him and proclaim his death until he comes. Andy, what final thoughts do you have for us on these verses that we’ve looked at?
Andy
I would say I never go to the Lord’s Supper without expecting to be blessed by it, expecting to receive the spiritual renewal that it was meant to give. So, I would urge the same thing from our hearers. Deal with it seriously. Think back. Go back in the podcast to listen to the looks, the look-up, look back, look around, look inward, all of those, and do that. Do that, all of that by faith. And then just enjoy partaking in the Lord’s Supper.
“I never go to the Lord’s Supper without expecting to be blessed by it, expecting to receive the spiritual renewal that it was meant to give.”
Wes
This has been part two of episode 15 in our 1 Corinthians Bible study podcast. We want to invite you to join us next time for episode 16 entitled Variety of Gifts, One Spirit, where we’ll discuss 1 Corinthians 12:1-11. Thank you for listening to the Two Journeys podcast and may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
Wes
Welcome to the Two Journeys Bible Study podcast. This podcast is just one of the many resources available to you for free from Two Journeys Ministry. If you’re interested in learning more, just head over to twojourneys.org.
Now on to today’s episode. This is part two of episode 15 in our 1 Corinthians Bible study podcast. This episode is entitled Godly Order in the Public Worship of the Church, where we’ll continue our discussion in 1 Corinthians 11, specifically looking at verses 17-34. I’m Wes Treadway and I’m here with Pastor Andy Davis. Andy, what are we going to see in these verses that we’re looking at today?
Andy
Well, this is one of the most familiar parts of the entire book of 1 Corinthians. It’s the part that addresses the Lord’s Supper, and anyone who is a regular attender at a Christian worship service will have heard what we call the words of institution over and over again. Well, today we’re going to walk through the chapter and some of the problems the Corinthians were having concerning the Lord’s Supper and Paul’s addressing of those problems and the timeless lessons that come from that.
Wes
Well, let me go ahead and read verses 17 through 34 as we begin.
But in the following instructions, I do not commend you, because when you come together, it is not for the better but for the worse. For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part, for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not.
For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.
Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.
So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another – if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home – so that when you come together, it will not be for judgment. About the other things, I will give directions when I come.
Andy, what was going on that caused Paul to be so critical of the Corinthians concerning their observance of the Lord’s Supper?
Andy
Well, we see right away in verse 17 he says, “When you come together, there are divisions among you.” And so, this was the problem right from the get-go in this book, I mean the factions and divisions, “I follow Paul, I follow Apollos, I follow Cepheus,” and there’s all these warring factions. And this meal of the Lord’s supper that should be uniting them, actually exacerbated their divisions. There was some really bad behavior that was going on concerning the Lord’s supper, but in a beautiful way, the Holy Spirit, using those immediate and temporary circumstances in one local church gives us the epistle and these instructions that end up being timeless instructions throughout 20 centuries of Christians addressing issues of the Lord’s supper. So, the immediate circumstance was bad behavior by the Corinthians in their factions and divisions and some other issues that we’re going to talk about that are really bad, such as getting drunk on Lord’s supper wine and things like that. But again, the words that the Holy Spirit moved Paul to write end up timeless instructions for us all.
Wes
What did the fact that they weren’t waiting for each other show about this disunity and what other sins were happening?
Andy
Right. So, they were very selfish, self-focused. One would just run on ahead and just grab some. Let’s imagine there were just the two elements, which is bread and wine. So, the people are showing up there and they’re hungry. They hadn’t eaten, let’s say, but they’re not poverty-stricken. Paul says, “Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in?” I mean really, it’s not a restaurant. This is a worship service. These are symbolic things. It’s not here to fill your stomach. And so, they were gorging themselves on bread leaving nothing for anyone that followed them. So like bullies, are edging themselves forward and then even worse, some of them were literally getting drunk on Lord’s supper wine. And so, these are some of the problems and maybe there was some bickering and conflicts and maybe even some fights that were breaking out egged on by the wine. And so just a very bad scene.
Wes
You mentioned a moment ago that Paul speaks of the homes that they had to eat and drink in. What does Paul mean by reminding them of that, and why was Paul so upset with them about all of this that we’ve been talking about?
Andy
I think what he’s trying to help them to see is that this is a symbolic spiritual ordinance. It is not for the meeting of your nutritional needs. So, when he says, “Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in,” he means in order to get enough calories for the day, in order to get enough energy to do your work, eat at home. That’s not what this is about. This is a spiritual meal. Yeah, it’s physical, it’s literal bread and literal wine that was chewed and swallowed, no doubt about that. But it wasn’t to meet your daily requirement for nourishment. So, when he said, “Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in,” he means that’s where you should be meeting those needs, this is for something else.
Wes
Now, as you mentioned, verses 23-26 are timeless verses used in churches all over the world as the words of institution for the Lord’s supper. What do they teach us about this ordinance?
Andy
Okay, so you walked through them. He said, “For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you.” Now on the night he was betrayed, Paul wasn’t there. He wasn’t a believer at that point. He was at that point a Pharisee and a pawn, a ladder-climbing pawn of the Sanhedrin and of the Jewish career that he was pursuing, which he describes, and we have so much information about. So, he wasn’t there. What he knows about the Lord’s supper, he received by revelation from the Holy Spirit as he did the other things he wrote about in his other epistles. So, he received this from the Lord and then passed it on to the Corinthians. They weren’t there either. They were Gentiles living in Greece, and he told them what happened, and then he walks through it here. “On the night that the Lord Jesus was betrayed, he took bread and when he had broken it, he gave thanks,” et cetera.
So, he brings us to that night, it’s called the Last Supper, also called the Lord’s supper, but it’s the Last Supper and it was a Passover meal, the feast of unleavened bread. And Jesus said ahead of time, he had earnestly desired to eat this meal, Passover meal, with them before he suffered. And so, this was part of him being a law-abiding Jew. Three times a year, the Jewish men were called on to assemble together at the place where God chose, which is Jerusalem. And they would observe three different feasts and the feast of unleavened bread or Passover was one of them. And Jesus earnestly desired to have that time together. It was a meal that they had together. And so that night while they were gathering together, and Paul identifies it here as the night he was betrayed.
So, it reminds us of the seriousness of that night, speaking of Judas Iscariot, and betrayed unto death. It was a very serious somber memorial, a somber remembrance. He said, “The night the Lord Jesus was betrayed, he took bread. And when he had given thanks…” Now the Greek word for giving thanks is eucharistia from which we get the word Eucharist. That’s just a transliteration of the Greek verb to give thanks. Now this was the regular pattern. Jesus, when he fed the 5,000, he took bread, and he looked up to heaven and gave thanks. And so, it was a sense of giving thanks to God for the actual bread. Then he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” The breaking of the bread represents Jesus’ death. Jesus died, so also will the wine as Jesus’ blood represent his death as well.
So, the breaking of his body, we should not understand that his bones were broken. That was forbidden. The Passover lamb, not a single bone would be broken, and Jesus’ bones also were not broken, but his body ceased to function. It was broken, so to speak, by death. And so, the breaking of the bread was a representation of that. And he said, “This is my body, which is for you.” The idea is, “My death is spiritual food for you. My death is nourishment for you,” the very point he will make or he had made earlier in John 6 when he said, “The true bread that comes down from heaven is the Son of Man and my flesh, which I give for the life of the world” (John 6:51). Now what he means is, “My death will be your life.” He’s not meaning a literal feeding on the body of Christ.
And we need to understand, there’s lots of traditions that are connected with the Lord’s supper for different ways of looking at the Lord’s supper. One of them is real presence. Roman Catholics call it transubstantiation, the Lutherans call it consubstantiation, but you have the real presence, either the somehow mystically the bread and wine literally and spiritually become the body and blood of Jesus. That’s what Roman Catholics believe, or by what they call transubstantiation, which is a philosophical understanding coming from Aristotle, the Greek philosopher. I don’t want to get into all that, but that’s what it means. And then consubstantiation, the Lutheran view was also a real presence, viewed as actual body and blood, but not by transubstantiation. Luther just punted on how it happened. He just said, “It’s a mystery, but it’s real presence.” Then you’ve got Ulrich Zwingli that came along and went exactly the opposite direction and said, “It’s nothing more than bread and wine. That’s all it is.”
And so, it’s a bare memorial, just helps us to remember. And so, he tended to minimalize it, and that was typical of Zwingli, he stripped everything down and kept everything absolutely as simple as possible. That was what the reformed, so to speak, Zwinglian churches did. And then you’ve got Calvin’s view, which is my view, John Calvin’s view, which I call the spiritual presence. And basically, it’s not a bare memorial. It’s certainly not literal body and blood of Jesus, but what it is is a very important and impactful experience we have in proportion to our faith, in proportion to our believing in the word of God. So, we actually have in the elements, an encounter with the living God, but not in the sense that it’s actually the body and blood of Jesus. It’s a spiritual presence in proportion to our faith.
That’s my view. At any rate, Jesus, when he took this, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you.” And then in the same way after supper, he took the cup, part two, and he said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” So, let’s take this statement, this zeroes in on what the author of Hebrews tells us and what Leviticus also told us, that the blood is what atones for sins. Without the shedding of blood, there can be no forgiveness. But now he uses the words new covenant. The essence of the new covenant is the once for all bloody sacrifice of Jesus by which our sins are completely forgiven. That is the new covenant, and this is a strong symbol and a reminder of the blood of Jesus shed. As the author of Hebrews tells us, once for all, for us. It is by faith in the blood of Jesus, our sins are forgiven.
“The essence of the new covenant is the once for all bloody sacrifice of Jesus by which our sins are completely forgiven.”
And so that’s what this cup symbolizes. Then with both the bread and with the cup, he says, “Do this in remembrance of me.” Or, “As often as you do this, you are doing this in remembrance of me.” So, he commanded this to be done. That’s why we call it an ordinance. It was ordained by Jesus that we should do this. And then Paul commenting on this says, “Whenever you do this, whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” And so that proclaiming of the Lord’s death is a preaching to onlooking unbelievers who should not be partaking physically, but who might be there watching. And he says, “You’re proclaiming the Lord’s death.” We also proclaim it to each other, reminding ourselves that Jesus died once for all, for all time. So that’s just walking through the verses.
Wes
Andy, I love that word proclaim. It has a sense of speaking a message. There’s a lot that’s going on when we are participating in the Lord’s supper together. You’ve spoken of this idea of looking in a variety of different directions as guiding us during our time of participating in the Lord’s supper, to help us think about what’s going on. Maybe walk us through that and how it helps us think about what’s actually happening as we remember the Lord’s death until He comes.
Andy
Yeah. Sometime ago I heard a preacher organize some of the main concepts of the Lord’s supper in the verb look, and then he used different prepositions to talk about where we should be looking. And the looking is spiritual, but it really sums up a lot of the themes that we just walked through and some others that are in a few other passages. So, first of all, look up to God in thanksgiving. Secondly, look back to Christ’s death, done once for all. Look inward to repent of your sins. It says a man ought to examine himself before he partakes in the Lord’s supper. We’ll get to that in a few minutes but look inward to be certain that there’s no unconfessed sin. Be certain that you’re in Christ. So be serious. Search me, O God, and know me. Look inward. Look around to the family of God, the fact that you are doing it together. It’s not something you do alone as part of your daily quiet time. It’s something you do together with the church.
And Paul will say in another place, “Just as there’s one loaf, so there’s one body of Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:17). So, there’s a sense of partaking all of us together. So, look around at the family of God, brothers and sisters. Look outward to unbelievers. So that’s that proclaiming of the Lord’s death. They should not be partaking, but as we do this, we are mindful of the fact that in the sanctuary where we have worship services, there are going to be unbelievers who are not partaking. But they’re watching and they’re learning. So, look outward and be mindful of those who need to repent and believe in Christ. And then look ahead because it reminds us of the feasting that we’ll be doing in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus said, “I will not drink of this fruit of the vine until that day I drink it anew with you in my father’s kingdom” (Mark 14:25 paraphrase). And even this text says, “We proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes,” so we’re looking ahead to the second coming of Christ. So, look up to God, look back to Christ’s death, look inward in reference to our sins and our spiritual condition. Look around to the body of Christ, look outward to unbelievers, and then look ahead to the second coming into eternity in heaven.
Wes
That’s a helpful framework as we consider these words of institution and what’s going on as we celebrate the Lord’s supper together. Now that look inward is related to the warnings that Paul also gives in these passages. What warnings does Paul give in verses 27-29, and how should we heed these?
Andy
These are very serious words here. He says, “Whoever eats the bread and drinks the cup in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.” Now, those who believe in real presence such as Roman Catholics and the Lutherans and all that, anyone who believes in real presence will zero in on that, you’re actually sinning, truly sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. They considered it blasphemy what some of the Protestant views were rejecting real presence. I don’t think that’s what Paul’s talking about here at all. But instead, the fact, as we’ve said, some of these folks are glutting themselves on Lord’s supper bread and getting drunk on Lord’s supper wine; that is definitely eating and drinking in a manner unworthy of the Lord. So, any of that kind of behavior. And he says, “You’re guilty of sinning against the body and blood of Jesus.” That’s how serious this is.
Now remember he said in the section on meat sacrificed to idols, that those who partake in a pagan worship service are partaking with demons. To speak more positively, those who partake in the Lord’s supper are partaking by the Spirit in the Lord. And so, we have to take this very seriously, very joyfully, yes, but seriously. So, this is a warning to not eat and drink in a manner unworthy of the Lord. And then he says, “A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup.” So even apart from sinning in reference to the Lord’s supper, just what’s going on in your life? It’d be an opportunity for you to repent of known sin. If there’s any flag, red flag that your conscience is putting up, repent. In some cases, it may be individuals refrain from partaking. In other cases, I would say partake but then make certain that you deal properly with the sin in your life because the Lord’s supper will help you to repent.
And so, examine yourself. That’s the look inward. So be very careful to find out what’s going on. So that’s why I think the Lord’s supper is a good opportunity for you to take stock. How am I doing spiritually? And then anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. So same thing like verse 27, that seems to teach real presence, but I don’t think so. I think we’re recognizing the significance of the actual incarnation and the body that was literally, historically, physically nailed to the cross. As the author of Hebrew says, once for all time, never to be repeated. So, we recognize the significance of that, that we’re remembering as we eat and drink.
So, we have to take that very, very seriously. There is no levity, there’s no joking or anything other than a seriousness and a repenting and a believing and a joy. There’s a thanksgiving in it, but that’s how we recognize the body of the Lord. And if not, Paul says very seriously, “You’re eating and drinking judgment on yourself.” Eating and drinking judgment, that’s very, very serious. And then he says shockingly in verse 30, “That’s why a number of you are weak and sick.” In other words, you’re having bodily problems because of the Lord’s supper. “Bet you didn’t know, but I’m a prophet,” Paul’s saying, “I’m a prophet and I’m telling you what your condition is. I’m telling you why you’re weak and sick. And a few of those people that just died, and you don’t know why, I’m telling you, they died.” Paul says, “fallen asleep,” but they’re dead because God struck them dead, Ananias and Sapphira style.
And so, the idea here is that, is how seriously the Lord takes this ordinance. So, because you’ve been disrespectful, that also points to the very important theme in Hebrews 12 of the Lord’s discipline. We ought to take very, very seriously the Lord’s discipline, “Don’t make light of it,” the author of Hebrews says in Hebrews 12. But don’t get discouraged either and get crushed by it. Just say, “All right, we’re going to deal with this properly. We’re going to deal with the Lord’s supper properly. We’re going to do it by faith, with reverence and with repentance and with joy.” So, he says, “That’s why a number of you are weak and falling asleep.” Then he makes a statement, “But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment.” That’s a very important statement, even apart from the Lord’s supper. God waits for us to address our sins vigorously.
He waits for us, and then if we won’t do it, he’ll take care of it. And so, you want to get out ahead of the Lord’s judgment, then say, “Search me, oh God, and know me, and I will deal with the things you bring to me.” If we judge ourselves, God doesn’t have to do it, but if we won’t judge ourselves, he’ll get busy and do things. It’s a warning to us, we’ll not come under judgment. When we are judged by the Lord, we’re being, he says, “disciplined,” so that we will not be condemned for the world. So, a number of those that were weak and sick, and some had fallen asleep, doesn’t mean that they’re condemned to hell. It just means God was dealing with them as children. He was willing to kill some of them so that they would deal seriously and spiritually with the Lord’s supper.
Wes
Andy, what final command does Paul give in verses 33 and 34?
Andy
It says, “When you come together to eat, wait for each other.” So, what that means is be courteous, be thoughtful, be other-centered. Consider others as more important than yourselves, as better than yourselves. Say, “No, no, you go first.” So, there may be a line where they’re standing in Roman Catholic style where they’re going up to receive the bread and the wine. We pass it out in trays, but we have other times that people come and stand in line to wait at tables. We do that occasionally. So, he says, “Wait for each other.” Be courteous to each other. I think the waiting for each other just simply means treat each other with dignity and with respect. Don’t brawl. Don’t argue, push, or shove or push yourself forward. So, wait for each other. And then again, as we’ve already said, if you’re hungry, eat at home. If you’re thirsty, drink at home, that’s not what it’s for, so that you don’t have judgment coming.
Wes
Yeah, it’s amazing. It seems again and again, Paul is aiming at reminding them what the supper is for. It’s not for your own personal gratification, it’s not for your physical sustenance. This is to remind you of the body and blood of Christ, that you might delight in him, remember him and proclaim his death until he comes. Andy, what final thoughts do you have for us on these verses that we’ve looked at?
Andy
I would say I never go to the Lord’s Supper without expecting to be blessed by it, expecting to receive the spiritual renewal that it was meant to give. So, I would urge the same thing from our hearers. Deal with it seriously. Think back. Go back in the podcast to listen to the looks, the look-up, look back, look around, look inward, all of those, and do that. Do that, all of that by faith. And then just enjoy partaking in the Lord’s Supper.
“I never go to the Lord’s Supper without expecting to be blessed by it, expecting to receive the spiritual renewal that it was meant to give.”
Wes
This has been part two of episode 15 in our 1 Corinthians Bible study podcast. We want to invite you to join us next time for episode 16 entitled Variety of Gifts, One Spirit, where we’ll discuss 1 Corinthians 12:1-11. Thank you for listening to the Two Journeys podcast and may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
