1 Corinthians 11:23-26

October 28, 2018

Lord’s Day Worship

Sean Higgins

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The sermon starts at 16:10 in the audio file.

Or, When Supper Is a Sermon

I am overwhelmed by how much good is in this paragraph, even by some of the things I’ve put together in my thinking for the first time this past week. I suppose I’ve prepared an average of 45 communion meditations a year for almost eight years now, so perhaps around 360 meditations, almost an entire year’s worth of daily thoughts. And there is still more wine in the cup, so to speak. While I know that I can’t say everything in one sermon that could be said about the Lord’s Supper, these are the verses in the chapter that we know the most, and yet this field will yield fresh fruit of encouragement as we walk through it again.

What would you say is the most important thing about communion? It is a command of the Lord, so we must obey Him and do it in remembrance of Him, but is our obedience the end, or does the Lord have a goal in mind after, or at least as part of, our obedience? Here’s another question, why is this paragraph even in the letter? This is the only place that Paul writes so distinctly about a tradition he received from the Lord; this is more a dominical statement than an apostolic one. There is more quoting of Jesus here than Paul does about any other issue. Why? And again, why here? The Corinthians were having problems when they came together, including their practice of the Lord’s Supper (11:20), but would we miss anything in the admonition if we skipped verses 23-26?

Paul himself viewed this almost formulaic reminder–and we know it was a reminder based on his report that he already “delivered it” to them–as an explanation for his inability to commend them. These verses aren’t merely content, they are for comparison. The Lord’s Supper is a memorial, but it is also a mirror. Maybe the key word in the paragraph is the first word, “for.” Paul had no reason to praise them and that was based on the meaning of the Supper itself.

The two questions, what is the most important thing about the Lord’s Supper, and why is this paragraph even in the letter, have the same answer. We eat and drink in remembrance of Him, and this remembrance is true or false by how we behave not just what we say we believe. To state it differently, the problem wasn’t with the Corinthians’ faulty confession of the nature or importance of the Supper, the problem was with the Corinthians’ faulty living in light of Christ’s death. You don’t cry at a party, dance at a funeral, or indulge yourself at a meal which remembers One who gave Himself for others.

This is exactly what made it worse when the Corinthians came together. At least some of the church members were feasting themselves into drunkenness while other members were put off and left hungry. This is anti-gospel, anti-cross, un-Christian behavior, so much so that Paul says, “When you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper that you eat” (verse 20). Presumably they thought they were observing communion, they probably used the right words, but how they treated one another betrayed them.

So in this paragraph Paul reminds them of when the Lord instituted the sacrament (a sacred or holy thing) of communion so that they will remember the Lord and remember their identity in the Lord.

What the Lord Said to Do (verses 23-25)

This is explanation not just about the Lord’s Supper, which it is, but it is explanation about why Paul can’t commend them. What they’re doing doesn’t match with what the Lord did and what He said to do.

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, which doesn’t tell us if the Lord revealed it to Paul directly when he was in the wilderness (see Galatians 1:11-12) or if the ultim[...]