THE LORD'S SUPPER, PART TWO: THE BETTER WAY

THE LORD'S SUPPER, PART TWO: THE BETTER WAY

A SERMON GIVEN BY JIM SCOTT ORRICK

JANUARY 14, 2001

Acts 2:42 leading to 1 Corinthians 11:23-34

Let's open our Bibles to 1 Corinthians, chapter 11. I'm preaching a series of sermons now on the essentials of a church, and I'm taking Acts 2:42 as my text for this series. You don't need to turn to Acts 2 right now. But I will remind you that in Acts 2:42, the Bible says that they continued steadfastly in four things, and these four things that they continued steadfastly in give us the essentials of a New Testament church, so listen to what they are. “They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.” Those four elements must be present in order for a group of Christians assembling together to be a genuine church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

There must be doctrine in a church if it is to be a true church, and it must be the apostles' doctrine. Many Christians in our day are minimizing the importance of doctrine, saying that all we need to think about is Jesus. Well, if we scuttle doctrine under the guise of focusing on Jesus alone, it won’t be long until the Jesus we are left with will be someone drastically different from the Jesus of scripture and of history. He will in fact be a Jesus who is unable to save. He will not be the Jesus of the apostles; he will be a Jesus created in our own image.

There must be fellowship in a true church, and fellowship is also defined in the Scripture. Fellowship is not just the fact that we enjoy the same athletic teams or the same kind of music or the same kind of food. Biblical fellowship occurs when we share holiness together and meeting together. True fellowship encourages. We are to encourage one another in the pursuit of holiness as individuals and also as a group. It encourages me to come together with a group of people and to know that all of us together are lifting our voices to the Lord. The Lord did not intend us to live the Christian life on our own apart from the fellowship of a local assembly. There are a great many advantages that are gained by our being actively involved in a local fellowship. I think of Psalms 73. The Psalmist tells us that he was in great trouble. He saw the prosperity of the wicked. He didn't understand why he was being chastised every day. His life was so difficult, and their life was so easy. "What's the use," he was thinking. "What's the point in all of it?" And he felt like that until he went into the house of the Lord. And when he went into the house of the Lord, he was exposed to God’s people, and he was exposed to truth, and he was exposed to fellowship that changed his mind. He saw that, instead of being envious of the wicked, he should instead really feel sorry for them, because their feet were set in slippery places, and when the Lord woke up, (it was like the Lord was sleeping), but when the Lord woke up, He was going to destroy them in a moment. But where did he learn all of that? Why was he reminded of that? He was reminded of that because he went to the house of God. So many times I myself have been arrested from a dangerous fall because of the people of God and coming to the house of God. The Lord doesn't intend us to live the Christian life by ourselves. We need one another. We need fellowship.

Then when we meet together, the Lord also wants us to practice the ordinances. The ordinances are represented by the breaking of bread in Acts 2:42. There are, in fact, two ordinances. The other ordinance is mentioned in verse 41, baptism. I have not yet preached on baptism, but last week and today the sermons are on the breaking of bread or the Lord's Supper.

Do you remember that last week I told you what an ordinance was? An ordinance is an order. The Lord commands us to observe these two ordinances. There may be some reason for a Christian to temporarily abstain from observing the Lord's Supper, but ongoing abstinence is inexcusable because it is an order from the Lord. It is an ordinance. There may be some reason for a person to temporarily abstain from submitting to the Lord for baptism, but it must not be prolonged abstinence, because it is an ordinance of the Lord that we should follow Him in baptism. I hope also that you will remember from last week, if you were here, that these are the only two physical rituals that the Lord has commanded us to observe in the church. Through these physical, observable rituals of baptism and the Lord's Supper, we proclaim the Lord's death. That's something that is true of both of the ordinances, and I'll say more about that a little bit later on because my text today says that specifically we proclaim the Lord's death in the Lord's Supper until He comes again.

When we observe the Lord's Supper, there's a worse way to do it, and there's a better way to do it. Last week we saw the worse way, not absolutely the worst possible way, but the Apostle Paul rebuked the Corinthians for four practices that were rendering their observance of the Lord's Supper ineffectual. In fact, they were not observing the Lord's Supper at all. They were just going through the motions of it. Let's look here in 1 Corinthians, chapter 11. Let me remind you of the worse way to observe the Lord's Supper beginning in verse 17, 1 Corinthians 11:17. “Now in giving these instructions I do not praise you, since you come together not for the better but for the worse. For first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it. For there must also be factions among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you. Therefore when you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord's Supper. For in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others; and one is hungry and another is drunk. What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I do not praise you.”

Now let me remind you of the four practices that made their observance of the Lord's Supper worse. He said when you come together, you don't come together for the better but for the worse. In the first place there were divisions and factions among the people. There were little groups and little cliques. Some of them said, “Oh, I'm a follower of Paul.” And others said, “I'm a follower of Cephas.” Still others said, “I'm a follower of Apollos.” Not only that, but there was the division between the haves and the have-nots, the rich people and the poor people. The rich people were bringing very good food, and since the poor people were eating all of the good food, the rich decided that they would just come a little bit earlier; that way the rich people just had a little rich-people party, and they ate all the good food. Then when the poor people came, some of them were so poor they didn't have anything. So they were ashamed of themselves for being so poor. Paul says that is not right. You cannot observe the Lord's Supper when you've got these divisions and factions among you. Not only that, but we see that when they came together they were actually taking the Lord's name in vain in the way that they were observing the Lord's Supper. Because, you know, you can take the Lord's name in vain by abusing His word, works, and ordinances as well as abusing His name. If you misuse anything whereby God makes Himself known, you're breaking the third commandment, taking the Lord's name in vain. So Paul says when you come together to observe the Lord's Supper, it's not the Lord's Supper that you're observing. You're having supper, but it's not the Lord's Supper. That's the worse way to do it, taking the Lord's Supper in vain.

Then there was a third abuse that made them come together for the worse. They were rude and inconsiderate. They were thinking only about themselves. They were coming to church thinking, "What can I get out of this?" instead of, "How can I minister to someone else?" That is an almost certain way for you to go away with just a few drops in the bottom of your cup every time you come to church. If you come with the attitude, "What am I going to get out of this?" you might get something, but it won't be nearly as much as you'll get if you come thinking,"How can I minister to someone else?" It is in giving that we receive, and it is more blessed to give than it is to receive. But they were coming together thinking only selfishly, and that's rude behavior. You know most of the protocols of manners and polite behavior are simple prescribed behavior that make you think about other people. But the Corinthians were being impolite. They were being selfish.

Then finally, they were treating the church of God like a social club. Well, it's nice that we can come together and enjoy some socialization, but the primary purpose of our coming together is not to have a social club. We're to be the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. But they were coming just to eat and drink. Paul said, “You've got houses to eat and drink in. There are other places that you can have societies or mere socialization. This is the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't despise it by turning it into a social club.”

So that's the worse way to observe the Lord's Supper. What's the better way?

Let's begin reading in verse 23. “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. 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.”

I want to gather the thoughts of this passage of Scripture around three main headings of how to observe the Lord's Supper the better way. First of all, we observe the Lord's Supper the better way when we remember the Lord. Secondly, we observe the Lord's Supper the better way when we proclaim the Lord's death. Thirdly, we observe the Lord's Supper the better way when we observe it in a worthy manner.

First of all then, beginning with verse 23, we observe the Lord's Supper in a better way when we remember the Lord. Jesus says twice in verses 23-26, “Do this in remembrance of Me.” I want you to first of all notice that Jesus Christ is the most important element of the Lord's Supper. Jesus Christ is greater than Christianity. Christianity is not primarily a system of doctrine. As I said in the introduction, doctrine is essential to the proclamation and knowing of the true Christ, but doctrine is not an end in itself. Christianity is primarily a person. Behind Christianity, is a person, and it would be far better for us to be doctrinal ignoramuses and yet know Jesus Christ, than to be astute theologians and not know Jesus Christ. You can believe the right doctrine and still be lost and go to hell. The devil can take Calvinists to hell just as well as he can take Arminians to hell. You may believe the right doctrine and still be lost. I know, because I once believed the right doctrine and was lost. My system of theology has not changed much since I became a believer. I had the good benefit of being reared in an orthodox Christian home. My daddy is a preacher who preaches the gospel, and I understood the gospel as well as a lost person can understand the gospel, but I had not received Jesus Christ. You can believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and still be lost. I know because I did, and I was lost. You can believe that Jesus Christ died for your sins and still be lost. I know because I believed that Jesus Christ died for my sins, and I was still lost. Do you know when I was saved? When I received a person, when I believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, when I stopped depending upon myself and what I knew about the Bible and what I knew about doctrine, and I looked entirely to Jesus Christ, when I stopped the struggle and let Jesus Christ tow me to shore.

A good friend of mine in West Virginia has a testimony that goes something like this: He was awakened to his need for Christ. There was a series of meetings going on at the local Baptist Church, the church he is now a member of. He attended the meetings. He did what they told him to do. He went forward. He prayed the prayer they told him to pray. They told him that he was saved, but he says he knew that he was not saved. But as the week progressed and his burden continued, and he was almost at the point of despair, he thought one evening, "Well, I'll go to church again, and maybe the Lord will save me." And he said that it was in that moment that the Lord saved him. What happened? He recognized that it was out of his power, that he had to depend upon the Lord to save him, and in that moment it all came clear to him.

Back in Illinois I was preaching a sermon in which I went through a section similar to the one that I have just gone through. "You can believe all the right things about Jesus and still be lost." Later on, a few days after that sermon, there was a woman who came to me and she said, “I've been born again.” And she said that it happened at that point in the sermon when I had said that you can believe all of the right things and still be lost. Salvation is in receiving a person. She said, “At that moment I saw it, that it was in Jesus.” And the Lord saved her.

Some people think that there is no place in evangelism for preaching the sovereignty of God and the helplessness of men. But I think that the very reason that so much that goes under the title of evangelism proves to be ineffective finally is because the evangelists with today's gospel give the impression that the sinner is in control, and Jesus is at the mercy of the sinner. So their so-called gospel—I don't think it's very good news—but their so-called gospel goes something like this: “Jesus has done everything that He can to save you. And now He is standing outside the door of your heart knocking and hoping that you will let Him in. Won't you let Him in? Oh, how He longs to come in. Time after time He has waited before, and now He is waiting again to see if you're willing to open the door. Oh, how He wants to come in!” And so-called evangelists, preaching this so-called gospel give the impression that the sinner's cry is “O.K., Jesus, You can come in.” But that is so false. That is a gospel that is a false gospel and is calculated to condemn many many people to hell. It gives people the idea that when they receive a certain doctrine or when they say a certain prayer or when they make a geographic change from the back of the church to the front of the church, that then they have done what is necessary to be saved.

But the true gospel leaves us no mistake. God is sovereign. Jesus is Lord, and He is not pitifully whining outside the door of anybody's heart, wishing that He could get in. He is not outside wringing His hands, wishing that He could do something about your condition. Jesus Christ has died for sinners. You say, did He die for me? You know, nowhere in the New Testament can you find one single place that says, “You should believe in Jesus Christ because Jesus Christ died for you.” Nowhere is an evangelistic appeal made in the Bible on the basis that Jesus Christ died for you. Instead the Bible says that Jesus Christ died for sinners. You say, “Well, did He die for me?” If you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you may be assured that He did die for you. Knowing for certain that Jesus Christ died for you is something that belongs to the period after conversion. It's part of assurance. Sometimes God gives it immediately. Sometimes He doesn't give it immediately, but it is the Lord’s business to give you the assurance that Jesus died for you. There are some people who will say that in order for you to be saved, you must believe that Jesus Christ died for you. Then they will take it further. They will say that you must believe that Jesus would have come and died for you had there been no one else in the entire world. That's not the truth. The Bible nowhere says that in order for you to be saved you must believe that Jesus Christ died for you and that He would have died for you if there had been no one else in the world. The Bible simply does not say that. Instead, here is what the Bible says: “As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God.” Not as many as received His doctrine, but as many as received Him. Here is what the Bible says: “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him,” not in His doctrine, “whosoever believeth in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.”

And so Jesus Christ reminds us of this blessed truth. Every time that we partake of the Lord's Supper, He says to us, “Do this in remembrance of Me.” Remember Me. So the Lord's Supper observed the better way is when we remember that the bread and the wine represent the body and blood of a person. “Do this in remembrance of Me.”

Further, when we are observing the Lord's Supper we also must remember that the person we are remembering was the Son of God who became a man. Another way of saying this is that the Son of God became incarnate. Carn is an old Latin word that means flesh. And so incarnation means in the flesh. That old word from Latin comes into our English language when we talk about a carnivorous animal. A carnivorous animal is an animal that eats meat or eats flesh. So when we talk about the Incarnation we are saying that Jesus, who did not formerly have a body of flesh, took a body of flesh. He took a body like the body that you have. It had blood coursing through its veins. He was a real man. And the bread reminds us that Jesus had a body, and the fruit of the vine, whether wine or grape juice, reminds us that Jesus had real blood. It reminds us that the man who died on the cross was the Son of God who became man. He was no mere man, but when we take these elements, we remember that the Son of God took flesh and blood that He might obey and suffer as a man. The Baptist Catechism asks: "Who is the Redeemer of God's elect?" The answer is: “The only Redeemer of God's elect is the Lord Jesus Christ, who being the eternal Son of God, became man, and so was and continues to be, God and man in two distinct natures and one person forever.” The children’s catechism asks. They ask: "How could the Son of God suffer?" Answer: "Christ, the Son of God, took flesh and blood that He might obey and suffer as a man." Without his taking a body, Christ the Son of God could not suffer. We remember the body and the blood of our incarnate Lord when we take the elements of the Lord's Supper.

Notice next, Jesus broke the bread and said, “Take, this is my body which is broken for you.” He took the cup, and He said, “This is My blood, the blood of the new covenant.” In the Lord’s Supper we remember a broken body and a bloody death. We remember that the Son of God became a man and then that He died a violent death. His death is represented by broken bread. His blood is represented by the purple juice of the grape. It reminds us of blood that was shed. Jesus died a violent death, and this reminds us that His death was a sacrificial death. He never died simply as a martyr. Still less, He never came just as a good teacher. He assumed flesh and blood that His flesh might be broken and bruised and that His blood might be shed. Why? Why did Jesus come to die? Because the Bible says that the wages of sin is death. You deserve to die for your sin. Not just in your physical body, but you deserve to be separated from God forever because of your sin. That's what I deserve. The wages of sin is death. So in order for God to forgive sinners who are guilty of sin and in deserving of death and at the same time just in forgiving sinners, someone had to die in our place. And so Christ, the Son of God, took flesh and blood, not just so that He could be a good teacher or so that He could set us a good example in dying for what he really believed in, but He died as a substitute for sinners. And now God can be just and a justifier of him that is ungodly. He poured out His wrath upon Jesus Christ, and when Jesus died, God said, that's quite enough to take away the sin of sinners. That's enough. God saw the travail of His soul and was satisfied, and God demonstrated to the whole world that He was satisfied with what Jesus had done by raising Him up from the dead. And now Jesus lives forever, and He is seated at the right hand of God the Father because the sacrificial death that He offered on behalf of sinners has been accepted by God. So when we take the Lord's Supper, we are remembering a person. We are remembering a holy, divine, spiritual person, the Son of God, who took flesh and blood. When He took flesh and blood, He did it so that He might obey and suffer as a man, that He might die a sacrificial death in the place of sinners.

There is another thing that we are to remember when we take the Lord's Supper. Look at verse 25: “In this 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.’” Focus your attention on that phrase, "this cup is the new covenant in My blood.” What is a covenant? It's an agreement between two or more persons. Now in the covenant that God makes with human beings, there, of course, is nothing that we can give to God except from what God has first of all given to us. And yet, though we can in no way enrich Him, God does require obedience from us in His covenants. Turn in your Bibles to Exodus, chapter 24. We will begin reading with verse 2. “So Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the judgments. And all the people answered with one voice and said, 'All the words which the Lord has said, we will do.' And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord, and he rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars according to the twelve tribes of Israel. Then he sent young men of the children of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. And Moses took half the blood and put it in basins, and half the blood he sprinkled on the altar. Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read in the hearing of the people. And they said, 'All that the Lord has said we will do, and be obedient.' And Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, 'This is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you according to all these words.'”

They had the blood of the covenant sprinkled on them, and when they submitted to it they were saying, "We're going to do everything that God has told us to do. We are submitting to God. Yahweh is our God and Redeemer, and therefore we are bound to keep all His commands." And so Moses said, “Very well then, if you're entering into the covenant, I will sprinkle you with blood,” and he sprinkled blood on them. Now Jesus says to His disciples, “This cup is the blood of the new covenant.” So when you take it, what are you saying? "I enter into this covenant. I submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Jesus is my King." Sometimes the people of God are described as those who have been sprinkled with blood. Our observing the Lord’s Supper is a reminder to us that we have been sprinkled with the blood of the Lamb of God, and in taking the Lord’s Supper we are proclaiming that we heartily submit to the terms of God’s covenant.

Turn to the book of 1 Peter, chapter 1. Peter writes: “ To the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.” Observe that obedience and the sprinkling of blood are closely connected. Turn back a few pages to Hebrews, chapter 12; verse 22 says, “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things that that of Abel.” Blood was sprinkled on the people as a sign, as a seal of their entering into the covenant. They were saying, "We agree to the stipulations of your covenant, oh God." And now Jesus holds out to us the cup, and He says, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. Drink it. But only if you're willing to accept the terms of the covenant, only if you're willing to lay down your life for Me. Don't drink it if you're not. If you're not willing to lay down your life for Me, if you're not willing to give up your life for My sake, don't drink the blood of the covenant."

So when we take the Lord's Supper, we remember that we have entered into a covenant with the Lord. So we are to remember a person. We are to remember that this divine person received a body that had flesh and blood. That body was broken; the blood was shed. It was a sacrificial offering of His body that He made. It was done for you. This is My body which is broken for you. In your place. And then also we're to remember it was the blood of the covenant that was shed, and that if we want to receive the benefits of Christ's work on our behalf, then we also say that we are going to obey Him as our King and as our Lord. So we observe the Lord's Supper the better way when we remember these things.

Secondly, look at verse 26. We observe the Lord's Supper the better way when we proclaim the Lord's death. “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes.” Two things here: first of all, the observance of the Lord's Supper is a picture sermon. It's a sermon without words. As people see the Lord's Supper being observed, it preaches a message to them. As I mentioned last week, this is one reason why I think it is good for children and unconverted persons to be present at the observance of the Lord's Supper. They should not participate, but be present to observe it because it is a sermon that stirs them up. Some of you can remember how curious you were about the Lord's Supper as a child and that you talked to your parents about it. The Lord’s Supper gives opportunity for parents to speak to their children about the gospel, about what the bread and what the fruit of the vine represent. You remember that's one of the specific reasons that rituals were given to the people of God in ages past. Their sons would ask, “Why do you do this? Why do you observe the Passover?” It gave an opportunity to teach them that the elder ones were slaves in Egypt, and the Lord brought them out with a mighty hand. And so also you parents, when your children ask you, “Why do you eat this bread? Why do you drink this grape juice, this fruit of the vine?” It gives you an opportunity to tell them that we were slaves in bondage to Satan, and God sent a mighty Deliverer. He sent His only begotten Son, and He became a man, and He endured a terrible death of tremendous suffering so that we might be brought out of our bondage and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. It proclaims the Lord's death. That's the first thing. And then the second thing is that we are proclaiming the Lord's death till He comes. So with the Lord's Supper, not only do we have a backward look at what Jesus has done for us, but we also take a forward look at the return of Jesus Christ. When Jesus Christ will come back, in the glory of the Father, and of the holy angels, and in His own glory, and take His people to be with Him forever. So to observe the Lord's Supper the better way, we remember some things, and then we proclaim the Lord's death till He comes.

Thirdly, to observe the Lord's Supper the better way, we must observe it in a worthy manner. Verse 27: “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.” Notice that we are to observe it, not as worthy persons, but in a worthy manner. None of us are worthy in ourselves. There are some people who erroneously abstain from the Lord's Supper because they think, “I am not worthy to take the Lord's Supper.” Well, the Bible nowhere says that you do have to be worthy. In fact the Bible acknowledges throughout that you will never be worthy to participate in such a wonderful feast as the Lord's Supper. But you are to observe the Lord's Supper in a worthy manner. What is that worthy manner? How can we observe the Lord's Supper in a worthy manner? Look at verse 28. “Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.” It's as though the Apostle Paul is saying, “Of course you're not worthy, but examine yourself, and when you have dealt with the issues that you find during self-examination, then eat the Lord's Supper.” What sort of things might we find during a period of self-examination? I think verse 29 begins leading us and telling us what we must examine ourselves for. “For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.” So that is the first thing that you should examine yourself for if you want to partake of the Lord's Supper in a worthy manner. Do you discern the Lord's body? What does that mean? I really think that I've answered it fully in the first point of this sermon. You remember that the Lord had a body and that the Lord sacrificed His body for sinners, and that these elements of the bread and the fruit of the vine represent the Lord's body and that when you take them, you are taking representations of the Lord's body and committing yourself to Him. I think that, in a nutshell, is what it means to examine yourself to see whether or not you discern the Lord's body. Do you recognize the truth of the gospel? That is the way of saying the same thing in a more condensed form. Do you understand the truth of the gospel?

I forgot to mention this in the first point, so let me mention it now. The bread is not actually turned into the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. How do we know that? Think back to what happened on the evening that Jesus was betrayed; Jesus stood before the disciples, and He had bread in His hand. Since it was Passover, it was probably the flat unleavened bread, and He held a piece of this flat unleavened bread in His hand, and He broke it. Then He said, “Take this and eat it. It is My body that is broken for you.” Would the disciples, under any stretch of the imagination, have thought that this bread was actually Jesus' body? No. Jesus was standing there in His body. He was in His body. This bread was not His body. It was clear that He was saying, “This bread symbolizes My body.” And the same way when He took the cup, He said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.” His blood was running through His veins right then. Obviously His blood was not in that cup. So the bread and the wine were not transubstantiated. The substance didn't transform into something else. They were clearly representative. And neither was Jesus somehow in that bread alongside the molecules of wheat or under it or over it. Jesus Christ was standing there in His physical body. So clearly the bread and the wine were symbolic and representative of Jesus' blood and body. Now that may seem like a minor point to you, but there has been a lot of blood shed over what I've said in the last three minutes. Remember then that the bread and the wine are symbolic and represent the body and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. When you take it, you are to discern that they represent this.

What else are we to examine ourselves for? We are to examine ourselves for the presence of sin in our lives that we have not repented of. Then what? Judge yourself. See it for what it is. See your sin for what it is, inexcusable rebellion against God, and condemn that sin in yourself. Verse 31 says: “For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged.” We examine ourselves, we find sin, we confess it, we repent of it, we fully intend to turn away from it and pursue new obedience with the Lord Jesus Christ, looking to Him for help. We even say, “Lord, sustain me with your body and your blood even as I take it. I know that I'm not worthy to take your Supper, but please bless the observance of this Supper that I might conquer this sin in my life. I see that it is a wicked thing. I hate it. I judge it in myself. Have mercy upon me, Lord, and don't put me under your judgment.” So we examine ourselves to see if we discern the Lord's body, and we examine ourselves to see if we have judged sin in ourselves. We would do well to take note of the scheduling of the Lord's Supper and make some preparation ahead of time. We would do well to make a mental note and even to mark it on our calendar: "Lord's Supper coming on Sunday." Spend some time on Saturday making preparation for it because we need to examine ourselves. Are we discerning the Lord's body? Are we judging sin in ourselves?

Finally, it is a very serious matter for us to observe the Lord's Supper properly because if we observe it improperly, not discerning the Lord's body, nor judging sin in ourselves, then God will punish us. Verse 29 again: “He who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.” This doesn't mean that we're going to be condemned to hell, but it does mean that God will chastise us for our sin of eating in an unworthy manner. “For this reason,” verse 30 says, “many are weak and sick among you and many sleep.” This morning as I was coming in, Jim Elliff met me near the door telling me about some people who were sick, that this one was sick and that one was sick. My wife is home with sick children, and I said to Jim, “Whew, it's a bad week for so many people to be sick.” “Why is that?” “Well, because this morning I'm going to be preaching from that text of Scripture that says 'for this reason many are weak and sick among you, and some are even asleep.'” I'm thankful that no one died this past week, but many are weak and sickly and some in my own family. Not all sickness is judgment from God, but sometimes sickness is judgment from God. And when sickness comes into our own lives or into the lives of our family, we really should go to the Lord and say, “Lord, is this a chastisement for some sin that I have committed?” If people in my family are sick this week, then perhaps my wife and I should get together and say, “Might it be that we observed the Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner last Sunday?” It may not be. But if so, then we should confess our sin and pray that the Lord would heal our children. Sometimes people even are killed because of their lack of obedience. Some commentators say it wasn't Christians who were being killed in this passage of scripture. If so, this would be about the only place in the scriptures where a Christian was killed as chastisement, but on the other hand, death for the unbeliever is never called sleep. And here it says that many sleep. So I think it is likely that some of the people who were dead as a result of observing the Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner were, in fact, Christians.

Observing the Lord's Supper is a joyful ordinance, but coupled with that joy, there is also some solemnity, and a passage of Scripture like this will help you not to take the Lord's Supper lightly or flippantly. Well, even in judgment that comes from the Lord, we should remember this word of grace that is in verse 32. “When we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.” So even if the Lord pours out the judgment of sickness or even physical death upon us, it's not because He is so mad at us that He wants to get revenge against us, or that He is punishing sin in us. But rather, like a loving Father who wants His children to obey, He is chastising us so that we will not be condemned with the world.

Verse 33 and 34 sum up: “Therefore my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another.” So you must not treat the Lord's Supper like it is some kind of social event. Wait for one another. Verse 34: “But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home.” You must not treat the Lord's Supper like an ordinary meal. Discern the blood and the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, “lest you come together for judgment.”

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Scripture from The Holy Bible, New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by
Thomas Nelson, Inc.