Introduction
Our Lord Jesus Christ loves his Church. He gave us his Word so that we can read of his love for his Bride. He declares to us in his Word that, "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends" (Jn. 15:13). How great it is to have his Word! But he didn't stop there. He also gave us visible signs of his love for us. He gave us the waters of baptism through which he says, "As real as the water on your head is, so is your membership in my visible Body, the Church." He also gave us the bread and the cup of his Supper in which he says, "Taste the bread, drink the cup, and know that your sins are forgiven. Eat, drink, and share in all that I accomplished for you on the cross!"
God knows we are physical, earthy people. So he gave us physical, earthy signs of his redemption, so that we not only get to hear the Word preached, but also we get to feel the Word poured on our heads and we get to taste the Word with our mouths.
"The Lord's supper is a sermon to the eye, and a confirmation of God's word to us…" Matthew Henry
"The word is added to the element, and there results the Sacrament, as if itself also a kind of visible word." Augustine on John 15:1-3 (Tractate 80)
This passage helps us understand better and love more this sign that the Lord has given to us to point to himself.
Why Does Paul Introduce the Lord's Supper Here Where He Is Talking about Eating Food Offered to Idols?
I. Reason # 1: As we learned a few weeks ago, some of the Corinthian Christians viewed the Lord's Supper as a magical pill that canceled out the sinfulness of sin.
A. It seems that they believed that participating in baptism and the Lord Supper allowed them to participate in sin without being guilty of it.
B. Paul compares them to that generation of the Visible church that perished in the wilderness.
1. That generation had similar sacraments: they were baptized in the Red Sea, they drank from the Rock, and ate the manna, 1-4.
2. And their bodies were strewn over the entire route: 90 deaths a day, every day for 38 years, 5.
3. Why? Because they believed that partaking in these immeasurable blessings from the Lord gave them the right to sin: they became idolaters, fornicators, tempters of Christ, and complainers, 7-10.
C. The Spirit of God mercifully preserved these accounts so that we could learn how to partake of Christ properly in the Lord's Supper, 6, 11.
II. Reason # 2: The Corinthian Christians needed to have a truthful assessment of whom they really were, 12.
A. Spiritual pride was a big issue in Corinth.
1. They believed that they were wiser than God, 1:20-25.
2. Some of them believed that they were better than the other Christians in the church, 8:9.
B. The Lord's Supper, if understood rightly and partaken by faith, is a great antidote to spiritual pride.
1. As we eat the bread, we realize that it took God becoming man in order to atone, to cover, to take care of our sins.
2. As we drink from the cup, we realize that it was our sin that spilt his blood.
3. As we receive spiritually the body and blood of the Lord Jesus, we are confronted with the fact that the only thing we bring to our spiritual life is our sin, and that God does all the rest.
4. The result of this: humble and confident faith in the work of Christ for us.
"I saw one hanging on a tree
In agony and blood
who fixed his loving eyes on me
as near his cross I stood. And never till my dying breath
will I forget that look.
It seemed to charge me with his death though not a word he spoke.
My conscience felt and owned the guilt and plunged me in despair. I saw my sins his blood had spilt
and helped to nail him there. But with a second look he said, 'I freely all forgive. This blood is for your ransom paid. I died that you might live.'
Forever etched upon my mind is the look of Him who died. The Lamb I crucified. And now my life will sing the praise of pure atoning grace that looked on me and gladly took my place.
Thus while his death my sin displays for all the world to view. Such is the mystery of grace. It seals my pardon too. With pleasing grief and mournful joy my spirit now is filled that I should such a life destroy, yet live by Him I killed." John Newton and Bob Kauflin
III. Reason # 3: The Corinthian Christians Needed the Grace Conveyed in the Lord's Supper.
A. They were confronted with their sins, brought low, and given the tall task to consider themselves truthfully and accurately.
B. They could have fallen into despair because they would soon realize that they couldn't on their own do the things that Paul was telling them to do.
C. So Paul says look to Christ, 13.
1. The Lord's Supper gives us the opportunity to look away from ourselves and look to Christ.
2. God is so kind to us that he gave us this physical sign to draw us away from us and put our eyes squarely on Christ.
"For every look at self, take ten looks at Christ." Robert Murray M'Cheyne
IV. Reason # 4: The Corinthian Christians Needed to Flee from Idolatry, 14.
A. Paul says that if they are really wise, they listen to what he is saying, and that these truths about the Lord's Supper won't be hard for them to understand, 15.
B. The Lord's Supper communicates to us our union with Christ, 16-17.
1. We get together, we bless the bread, we bless the cup, and we partake of them together.
2. Partaking of it together signifies very important things – it points to very important truths.
a. It signifies/points to the fact that we share by faith in the benefits that Christ secured for us in his life death and resurrection – that's what the communion/fellowship of the blood and body is.
WLC 168 – What is the Lord's Supper? The Lord's Supper is a Sacrament of the New Testament, wherein, by giving and receiving bread and wine according to the appointment of Jesus Christ, his death is showed forth; and they that worthily communicate feed upon his body and blood, to their spiritual nourishment and growth in grace; have their union and communion with him confirmed; testify and renew their thankfulness and engagement to God, and their mutual love and fellowship each with other, as members of the same mystical body.
b. Not only does the Lord's Supper points to our communion with Christ, but also with our communion with one another, 17.
1) We are one bread, one loaf.
2) Our union with Christ also unites us to one another – body and head imagery makes it even clearer.
3) So, this morning when eat bread and drink from the cup, realize that it is not just you and Jesus.
4) It is you, Jesus, everyone around you, everyone in the Church throughout the world, and everyone in the Church throughout the ages!
5) In this way, the Lord's Supper unites us to the cloud of witnesses that has gone before us and now says, "Yes, you can flee idolatry by God's grace."
Heb. 12:1-2 – Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
C. When we truly partake of Christ by faith, we will not want to be yoked with idols, 18-21.
1. Some of the Corinthian Christians believed that going to the temples where idols were worshiped was consistent with their Christian testimony.
a. They hide behind the expression, "idols are nothing!"
b. They would hide behind the true statement that there are no other gods but the God of the Bible.
c. Don't we do that some times too?
1) We use statements that may be biblical accurate in order to justify our idolatry.
a) All truths are God's truths, so it doesn't matter where I get them.
b) I live under grace, not under law – so it's ok not to pursue holiness.
c) I have Christian liberty – so it is ok to beat other people up who don't agree with me.
2) We have our idols as well and we often justify our love and service to them with the Bible.
3) That's what the Corinthians were doing.
2. Yes, there is only one God, but there are also such things as demons, that's what behind the idols, 20.
3. You may claim that you are not doing that, but the activity itself is sinful and you can't redefine it – sharing of the altar, 18.
4. You just cannot serve God and partake of Christ in the Lord's Supper and serve and partake of your own idols, 21.
a. When we participate in the Lord's Supper with the desire to still keep our own idols, we are not partaking of Christ by faith.
b. The cup and bread are no longer the cup and the bread of blessing.
c. They become a means of God's judgment upon us.
1 Cor. 11:27-30 – 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.
5. That's the depths of our sinfulness – we transform such a beautiful blessing into a curse and we challenge God thinking that we are greater than he is, 22.
6. But that's where the depths of the grace of God is also demonstrated – he grants repentance and calls he people to come to him.
Conclusion
We end today with the words of Augustus Toplady and Horatius Bonar:
"Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to the cross I cling; naked, come to Thee for dress; helpless look to Thee for grace; foul, I to the fountain fly; wash me, Savior, or I die…. Thy work alone, O Christ, can ease this weight of sin; Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God, can give me peace within. Thy love to me, O God, not mine, O Lord, to Thee, can rid me of this dark unrest, and set my spirit free."
May these words express our own confession of faith in Christ.
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