About this sermon
The Corinthians’ divisions at the Lord’s Supper shamed the poor, as some went hungry while others were drunk. Paul reminds them of what he received from the Lord, that the bread and the cup proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. Those who eat and drink examine themselves, discern the body, and wait for one another, so that the church lives out at the table the story of the Christ who gave himself for them.
Sermon transcript
♪ The house of thine abode ♪ ♪ The church of blessed mercy ♪ ♪ In whose compression doth ♪ ♪ I humbly swear to God ♪ ♪ That all before thee stand ♪ ♪ Here at thee at old ♪ ♪ For her my prayers of sin ♪ ♪ Till her my cares and toils begin ♪ ♪ Till toils and cares and sorrows end ♪ ♪ The heart that grinds her heav’nly veins ♪ ♪ First we come in and solemnly bow ♪ ♪ The hymns of love and praise ♪ ♪ Jesus, thou grand divine ♪ ♪ Our Savior and our King ♪ Thy hand upon every tear and blood, shall bring me life and strength. Sure as thy youth shall pass, soon thy life shall begin. On thy victorious way, Please be seated.
I invite you to turn to our passage, 1 Corinthians 11, second half of that chapter, verses 17 through 34. First Corinthians chapter 11, verse 17 to the end of the chapter 34. Here Paul says, 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. From 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 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. Let’s pray together again.
Father, indeed, we are thankful for this, your holy, inerrant, authoritative word. We come not as masters of this word, but to be mastered by the word. So would you take now my, my words and the collective meditations of our hearts and make them acceptable in your sight, the Lord, our rock and our redeemer.
One of the great. grand truths about the church is that all who are united to Jesus Christ by faith are likewise united in fellowship with all other believers. Our union with Christ equals communion with the saints. and all the attendant blessings of the gifts and graces of those saints in a particular location. So that’s a great, grand and glorious reality that union with Christ means communion with one another and gifts and graces that the Spirit gives. And it’s equally true, that is, Much as we enjoy those gifts and graces and are indeed united in community and communion with one another because of our union with Christ, we don’t embody that perfectly.
And Corinth, of course, is exhibit A in the scriptures for a community that failed to actually embody the unity they had in Christ, hence the letters to them by way of correction, exhortation, and rebuke. And what’s interesting is that the failure at Corinth, according to Paul, the failure particularly here was a failure to actually live in light of what the death and resurrection of Christ means. A failure to live in light of what the Lord’s Supper means. They were actually living in complete contradiction. to the unity that the supper means. And in looking at that, and looking at their failures, we actually get lots of insight into what it actually does mean to live in line with what the Lord’s Supper means, and the unity that it commends to us.
So let’s take a look at this. Of course, well-known passage under three considerations. Consider what the problem was here that Paul is addressing with the Corinthians. Consider the principle that is at stake, and then a practice which is enjoined in light of that principle. So the problem, the principle that’s at stake in that problem, and then a practice enjoined in light of the principle. First of all, think about the problem.
It’s articulated very straightforwardly. Paul doesn’t mince his words. In verses 17 through 22, he’s giving a very strong rebuke to Corinth. And it’s over the division that exists in their midst. Verse 18, I hear that there are divisions. And this particular division The one he’s addressing here was showing up when the church gathered for the Lord’s Supper. Verse 20 tells us. Now, in order to get inside of this, it’s actually helpful to know a little bit about the social world of that time. First century Greco-Roman social world in which Paul was writing.
It was a time in the system that was built on patronage. So you had those who were, we could call them rich, and you had those who weren’t rich or poor. You didn’t have this big, massive group in the middle who lived above poverty but weren’t wealthy, as it were. It was a simple patronage system of rich and poor.
And there were distinctive class markers that showed up, that let you know immediately who was who. The tunics that people wore, the clothing, Immediately let you know if you were part of the wealthy class or the poor class. The food you eat. Where you sat when you ate. So the places at the table and which particular tables you sat at in domestic situations or out and about somewhere else.
All these things were indicative and let you know where you belonged. And that time. in this particular setting, they were very, very interested in maintaining those distinct markers. There wasn’t a desire to eradicate that and make everyone appear the same. They were very, very intent on showing who is who in the society.
I mean, we have this a little bit in the West. I’m always hit by it whenever I fly. And I’m sitting way in the back of the airplane in the squinched economy section, looking way up as the flight attendant takes that curtain, that middle wall of social partition, and just rips it shut and basically announces to the rest of us, you guys are losers. You don’t get what we get in here. You know, the big cushiony seats and all the things they enjoy.
It’s a class marker. that just lets you know your place in society while you’re flying on the airplane. And we have some other ones, but that’s one that just jumps to mind. And so here, in this text, we’re considering those stark class, wealth divisions, social divisions that we’re seeing in everyday eating habits. Rich patrons sitting at one table, sitting in one particular place in the house.
And the poor, the underclass, the slaves were sitting at another place and were eating scraps, verses 21 to 22 tell us. Those distinctions you would have seen in everyday life were actually being transported into the church. And Paul is saying, no. to that. That’s not how it works in the gospel.
All the divisions that exist, you know, in just the way the world operates in the world system that go on, all of the ways we mark out distinctions along the levels of class or status or however you want to frame it. There’s all those kinds of things that the world operates by that lets you know your place and lets you know the level of dignity you will be assigned. There’s all that. But the Lord’s table is a place in which those things get reordered.
The position you occupy in society doesn’t matter at the Lord’s table. Your birth status doesn’t matter at the Lord’s table. What you think you’re owed or what you’ve been given in life is not how you’re principally defined and doesn’t determine the place you’re given. when you come together with the Lord’s people. Because the Lord’s table, the communion of saints, in particular instantiations in a church, not just universally, but in a church, is to put on display a social order, shall we say, that doesn’t have the same kinds of markers that you see elsewhere, outside of the church.
That’s the old way of doing things. The kinds of things that divide people in Adam, in our sin, no longer maintain in Christ. You know, in South Africa, during apartheid, sometime during apartheid, there were some Christians who said, you know, there were strict laws on segregation at all levels, right? Where you lived, who you married, where you worked. South Africa codified a kind of discrimination along the basis of race. And there were some Christians somewhere during that time, I can’t remember exactly when, who said, you know what?
We are actually going to defy this, and we are going to eat together. We’re going to have black people, white people, Dutch people, English, whoever, all eat together in the name of Christ. We were going to have meals that rotated around. And what they were obviously saying is that in Christ, The orders of the world, the social orders, the designation, the place you’re supposed to be, along whatever divisions, don’t maintain. They were defying society and the world. They were actually doing the very opposite, what Corinth was doing.
So the problem is delineated here. The problem in Corinth. is that they were not living out the meaning, the significance that the Lord’s Supper is. Paul says in chapter 10, there’s one loaf. It’s not many loaves. And their problem was they were not embodying that new way of being together.
This new humanity, he says in Ephesians chapter 2, where the middle wall partition is broken down and people come together, Jews and Gentiles and other people, because they’re united to Christ. They’re one in Him. They were actually allowing the old order to continue to define the new way of being, of being the people of God. They were, good old word, they were nominalists. They had a name as following Christ, as enjoying the Lord’s Supper, but there was no reality behind it. They were nominalists. So that’s their problem.
And for Paul, this isn’t merely a social problem to be solved. It isn’t just a matter of getting different people within the Greco-Roman society to all join together, getting rich people to redistribute their food. This isn’t just a matter of social problems to be solved. One of the ways people solve housing segregation is they build mixed income buildings in the hopes that putting all different people of different classes together, they might get along. That’s not what Paul’s actually after here. It’s not a mere social issue that he’s after. That people are failing to be inclusive here in the Corinthian church. It’s not social. It’s actually a theological problem. One that goes right to the heart of Jesus’ work on behalf of his people.
You see it in verses 23 and following. In answer to the problem you see in verses 17 through 22, the divisions and the ways they weren’t distributing food and letting some go hungry and others were getting full and drunk and things. In answer to the problem there, he raises the principle that’s at stake in verses 23 and following.
He recounts to them the events of the last supper. In verse 23, for I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you. The Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread. When he’d given thanks, he broke it. He’s recounting the events of the Last Supper, and he zeroes in on the foundational reality or purpose of Christ’s death.
He says, this is my body. He reminds the Corinthians, Jesus said, this is my body, which is For you. This is my body which is for you. The great transaction. My life for you. My death is on your behalf. He’s saying, Jesus as true bread, the bread of life that’s the manna sent from heaven, as true wine, food and drink from heaven, gave up himself for us, for our feeding. My body is given for you to eat.
The triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, eternally satisfied in one another, opens up comes to earth in Christ, the Son of God, to die, to bring life to a fallen humanity, a group of people within fallen humanity, that they could have fellowship and peace with God. The Trinity opened up at great cost that we could have fellowship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Now, how obscene is it to worship a God who gives himself for us as food for eternal life and drink? That’s the God Corinthians were proclaiming to worship. How obscene is it to worship a God like that than to withhold your food from your fellow neighbor in the church? To say you worship a God was infinitely great, who though being rich for our sakes became poor, that we who are poor could become rich.
To say that’s the God you worship and serve, who gave himself ultimately to the end, and then to take your food and not give it to the person next to you, so that they go hungry. They were living in dissonance with what they actually believed, that Christ died for us as true food, as bread from heaven.
And it’s as if Paul was saying, we’re called to so identify with one another. And especially those who are not in our circle. It’s glorious when the church looks like a collection of people who the only explanation for why they are together is that God has done something. where you’re with people that you would not naturally be with. It is a beautiful thing to see a community oriented like that, where you can’t say, oh, they just all went to the same college, or they all come from the same socioeconomic class and background. But to say, there is just no explanation for why that group of people are together other than God broke in and did something supernatural. to bind them together.
Paul is saying here, we are to so identify with one another that we actually participate in external practical ways in loving them. So the principle at stake, we could say, is identification and participation, to see ourselves embodying the self-giving love of Christ who died for us, who gave himself for us, that we identify with that and we participate in living it out. That’s the principle at stake. Because that’s what Paul means when he says, do this in remembrance of me.
It’s not remembering isn’t just, oh, 2 plus 2 equals 4. I remember a fact. It’s not just that. It’s not just letting the bare facts of something bounce around in our brains. And we’re told in Galatians 2 that, Peter, James, and John told Paul and Barnabas, yes, go preach the gospel, but make sure you remember the poor. He wasn’t saying to them, note that there are those who don’t have basic sustenance for living. And just note that in your brain.
Remember isn’t just a bare intellectual abstraction. He’s actually saying identify and participate in making sure they have life-giving sustenance. Remember is an embodiment, it’s an act of identification with and participation in Christ’s own self-giving. Do this in remembrance of me, he says. We reenact, we remember, we participate in practically. Right, we exemplify our communion, our union with Christ and our communion with one another.
When we, as Paul said, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. What is that mind? It’s that mind that goes from places of exaltation down into the depths of humiliation only to be at the final day raised up and given a name that is above all other names. So we take our positions and status and we hold things lightly. And we can lovingly give and participate. and whatever that looks like.
You know, you’ve probably heard it before, in the wisdom of the world, if you don’t have a seat at the table, you’re probably on the menu. You’ve heard that before. Right? If you don’t have the powerful positions in the corporation, where the decisions are made in the back rooms with all the brokers, then all the decisions are being made for you and about you. That’s just kind of how things operate. And Paul tells us, though, that in Christianity, Christ has actually become the menu that invites both the power brokers and the powerless to sit together. He has provided himself as the bread, as the wine.
And he’s not naive, of course, about the difficulties of this call to self-donation, this call to identifying with Christ and participating in self-giving love, sacrificial love for one another, as opposed to the kind of selfishness that was on display here in Corinth. ignorant of that, of how difficult that is, and hard and painful. Obviously, I mean, we wouldn’t have a New Testament if it wasn’t for all the problems that first century churches had.
So much correction goes on within the letters. So he’s not ignorant, of course, of how difficult this is, how difficult it can be to just move toward one another in self-giving ways and to be patient. and to absorb the prickliness of other people and to loving, patiently endure and forbearance and forgiving one another. These beautiful graces that the body is to exemplify that are the fruit of the spirit. He’s not unaware of how difficult that is. Yet, it’s not being easy, so what?
Yet Christ calls us to it, calls us to this reordering, this embodying of the new life and of the new man toward one another. That results in a body that demonstrates what chapter 25 of our confession talks about. Sharing in each other’s gifts and graces. and a body that is functioning through the power of the Spirit with members united to Christ and to one another. Now we tend to think about the Lord’s Supper a lot in terms of its vertical realities, theological. What is Christ doing? What is God doing in the supper? What’s happening?
We tend to think about it a lot like that. But that vertical is inextricably connected to the horizontal. how we are treating one another, how we are practically embodying the meaning of the supper. So those things always go together. There is no true apprehension of the truth of God without a practical, real, lived practices of that truth. Orthodoxy and orthopraxy go together. So we don’t just think about the Lord’s Supper what’s going on, the internal dynamics of it. But what is happening with us? What is happening with the body?
And Paul is saying, he tells in Exodus, Moses tells the Hebrews, he says, look, when you have sojourners come into your midst, strangers, people not from your nation, apart from you, when they come in, you don’t exploit them. You know, don’t take advantage of their vulnerable situation, and he gives these commands. And he grounds it, though, in this reality. He says, don’t exploit, don’t mistreat sojourners in your midst, the people that are not a part of you. Don’t mistreat them.
Because remember, you were a sojourner. You were a strange people at one point. You were in Egypt, and I redeemed you. He’s basically saying, remember your own redemption as a way to then go and love one another effectively, and to love those who come into the midst who are not a part of you. Remember that you yourselves were strangers. And with a mighty hand, I delivered you out of Egypt. And let that memory, let that relive experience of the gospel in your own life, of your own participation in being a recipient of God’s saving mercies. Let that motivate you to then exemplify that to those around you.
So we’re not left with just grand theological sentiment here. We’re actually left with a practice, too. in light of this reality that Christ died for us and offered himself on our behalf. We’re left with a very straightforward practice, Paul says. There’s lots of practices that emanate from this truth. But here’s one that Paul specifically says for a final point. In verse 33. So in light of what Christ has done, in light of his self-giving, And my call to his call to us to remember it. And also look at it.
But Paul is sure to give the warnings in light of not living out the Lord’s Supper. There are blessings to covenant faithfulness. There are curses. And he’s saying, what happens when you don’t live this out? There is chastisement. Because I love you, I will chasten you. It is actually a great mercy to get sick when we are actively contradicting the call of Christ, not living in accordance with the light He has shown. It’s a mercy to be stopped in our tracks and to get sick, and in some cases to die.
So Paul is not withholding the truth of that, but saying, do this in remembrance. Live in light of what this means and remember it. And he gives a practice in verse 33, very, very, very straightforward practice in light of that. He says, so then my brothers, when you come together to eat, As opposed to all the divisions and everything, as opposed to the rich holding on to their good food and hoarding it and not giving it to the other folks, in opposition to the divisions that you’re exemplifying, do this instead. Here’s what it looks like to embody it for you.
So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. Wait for one another. If anyone’s hungry, let him eat at home so that when you come together it will not be for judgment. Don’t come and you’re starving so you hoard up and you don’t think about the people you need to share with. Wait for one another. So simple, so profound. Waiting takes patience. Takes the fruit of the Spirit. Patience. The ability to endure. and to keep going in the face of countervailing forces and desires. Wait, because don’t we all want to rush ahead with our agendas? Won’t we all at heart think the world would be a much better place if everyone would just follow what I want? But wait, Paul says. Don’t leave others behind.
Of course, this involves active listening, attentiveness to concerns beyond ourselves, and learn to wait. The waiting here is not one of mere idle tolerance. It’s the waiting of a waiter. who is attending to others, who is looking after others. And Paul is saying this is a practice that gospel remembering, remembering what the meaning of Lord’s Supper is. This is a practice that flows, an implication that flows directly out of a right remembering of what Christ has done.
You wait. You’re patient. You wait for one another. You may know more and wonder why your church doesn’t go in this direction or why are we so unaware of that or this. And you wait. Patience and listening. Others are waiting for you, wondering why you don’t know X, Y, Z and why do you do this and that. There’s a patience and a waiting there.
I love the African proverb that says, if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. I like that. I think Paul would agree with that. A life lived in symphony with Jesus Christ is a life of waiting and of renouncing that compulsion to neglect others. But contrary-wise, having a zeal to connect with, invite in, participate in the life, know and love and be known and be loved by the others that are around us. So there’s a problem. Paul tells us the principle that’s at stake.
Do this in remembrance of me and recognizing what the meaning of the Lord’s death is and how that ripples out into life together and particularly the celebration of His supper. And then this one little practice that’s representative and implies so many other realities and fruits of the Spirit. May the Lord help us by Spirit to taste and see the truths here and to live them out to His glory and our good.
Let’s pray together. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you that you have not left us without witness, that you did not leave us to stumble along in the dark and blind to your truths. But in your grace and mercy to us, you allow us to hear your word, to read it. May we mix the hearing with faith. May your spirit give us the power to carry out that which you show us. We want eyes that see. your truth, ears that hear it and hearts that are indeed set to obey it.
So Lord, may we indeed live out the meaning of the death of Christ and his resurrection and how that ripples out practically in our life together, how union with him leads to communion with one another. So give us the grace to live these things, Lord, and to cherish them and to love you with an increasingly renewed faithfulness and obedience. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Let’s take our hymnals and we’ll turn to hymn number 278.
Really a prayer that Christ would indeed abide with us as his people. giving us the grace to live faithfully to Him, toward Him. Jesus, with Thy Church abide, Be our Savior, Lord, and guide, While on earth our faith is tried, We beseech Thee, hear us. Keep her life in doctrine pure, Grant her bishops true, While staying in thy holy floor, The A-B-Cs, they hear us. May she one and darling be, One and true, May she guide the poor and blind, Seek the lost until she finds, And the broken-hearted find. Save her love from growing cold. Make her watchmen strong and bold. Let her wrap thy peaceful fold.
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