A Meal for Our Forgetfulness
November 6, 2022
Preached by Benjamin Vrbicek
Scripture Reading
1 Corinthians 11:17-34
17 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. 18 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, 19 for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized.20 When you come together, it is not the Lord's supper that you eat. 21 For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. 22 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.
23 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, 24 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.” 25 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.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
27 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.28 Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30 That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. 31 But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. 32 But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.
33 So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another— 34 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.
Last week we had four baptisms throughout the morning services. In the sermon on baptism, I likened the practice of baptism in the local church to a wedding ceremony, specifically putting on a wedding ring. My wedding ring declares to the world that I’m in an exclusive relationship with another, namely, my wife—just as my baptism declares to the world that I’m in an exclusive relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
We’ve been preaching a series about the local church, and this week we come to the sermon on the Lord’s Supper. If we can liken baptism to a wedding ceremony, we might liken the Lord’s Supper to an anniversary dinner. Through the Lord’s Supper it is as though God reminds believers, “You know all those vows and covenants and blessings and all that love and joy and faithfulness that I spoke over you in your conversion and baptism? Well, they are still true. My love has not grown cold.” And not only is God saying something in the Supper, so are his people. As one author puts it, if baptism is more of us saying “I do,” than the Lord’s Supper is us saying, “I continue” (the chapter by Thabiti Anyabwile in The Gospel as Center, 246). Let’s pray. “Dear Heavenly Father . . .”
In early March of 2020, I had no idea what was coming. Most of us didn’t. And none of us fully understood what the next six months would be like, certainly not the next two years. I had no idea our church would move to only online services for thirteen weeks. I had no idea it would be sixteen weeks before we practiced communion together, which we waited to do until we could all gather again. Other good churches, however, with good pastors who moved their services online, gave instructions to their people about how they could, while watching online, take communion in their homes.
Our church did not do that. Even now, we livestream our first service of the morning, but you’ve never seen me look at the camera and say something like, “For you at home, please get the elements you’d like to use for the Lord’s Supper.” Why have we never done this? A large part of the answer to why we’ve never encouraged the Lord’s Supper online shows up in this passage, 1 Corinthians 11:17–34.
The church in an ancient city called Corinth didn’t have the exact same questions we have about the Lord’s Supper, about how and where to take the Lord’s Supper during a pandemic or about if Christians can practice the Lord’s Supper across the Internet. But their church did have problems. And their problems, when we look at them more closely, do relate to us. The problem in Corinth was selfishness. The problem was coming to church to get rather than to give. And the problem was so bad that in taking the Lord’s Supper the way they were taking it, rather than building unity in the gospel, they were actually destroying the unity of the gospel. In fact, their selfish sin got so bad that even though they think they are taking the Lord’s Supper, Paul says they are not taking the Lord’s Supper.
The Problem: Abuse of the Body
Let’s reread some of the verses, and we’ll spend the first part of the sermon talking about how selfish church members hurt one another. Look with me again at 1 Corinthians as I read a few verses.
17 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. 18 For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you . . . 20 When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. 21 For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. 22 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. . . . (1 Cor. 11:17–18a, 20–22)
You can see how serious Paul took their sin from the language he uses. “Do you despise the church of God?” he asks. “Do you humiliate those who have nothing?”
The reason Paul asks these questions might not be immediately clear to you. You might need more context. Apparently, their practice of the Lord’s Supper involved not simply a small bit of bread and a small cup, but a full meal. The Lord’s Supper is built upon the Passover meal that Jewish believers practiced for 1,400 years, including Jesus himself on the night he was betrayed. The Passover meal was a full meal. That may be why in the early church we often see something like a full meal taking place around the Lord’s Supper (Acts 2:42–47; and maybe 20:7, 11 and Jude 12). It could also be that in Corinth there was a culture of large meals and celebration. But sometimes this culture of large meals, especially in a city like Corinth, had origins in pagan culture. The meals would involve meat sacrificed to an idol and extravagant gorging on food and drink. Often at these celebration meals, the wealthy would bring decadent food for themselves, and afterward leftovers could be had by those of a lower class. Perhaps the lower class even had to eat in a less desirable part of the house.
A few of you know this, but I live just a few minutes from here, and years ago, the neighborhood asked my family to take over hosting their Fourth of July neighborhood parade. It had been going on for a while and they needed a new family to take their turn. So we did. We host a one-mile fun run, a bouncy house, the singing of the national anthem, and a bike parade that’s escorted by the local police and fire departments. Then we hand out popsicles and serve food. Nothing fancy, just hamburgers and hot dogs. The whole idea is to build community among our neighbors, and as a Christian, I’m certainly hoping for opportunities to talk about Jesus.
But what if, inside my dining room, I served not hamburgers and hot dogs but thick steaks cut from Japanese Kobe beef? What if, in my dining room, we served other fine foods and fine drinks? And what if I only let my closest neighbors into my dining room, while everyone else gets hot dogs? Well, that would make me a jerk and probably not build the community I had hoped, right?
In Corinth something similar was happening—but worse. Not only were the rich humiliating the poor because they had nothing to eat, but they were putting the name of the Lord Jesus Christ upon it by also practicing the Lord’s Supper. It was evil. Just to let this set in more, I’ll say it this way. There was an evil time in American culture when certain lunch counters were labeled “whites only.” That’s bad. Now imagine the anger of God when a church make those kinds of divisions, and to make it worse, they then they enshrine those divisions in religion by practicing the Lord’s Supper. I was talking with pastor Tony, and he mentioned a saying he had heard in his coaching days. Tony told me, “Practice doesn’t make perfect. Practice makes permanent.”
With this context, I’ll read the verses again to see what they made more permanent.
17 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. 18 For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you . . . 20 When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. 21 For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. 22 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. . . . (1 Cor. 11:17–18a, 20–22)
Then look down at vv. 33–34.
33 So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another— 34 if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home—so that when you come together it will not be for judgment. . .
You’ll notice that they were not condemned for having poor among them. The problem was not merely that some had money and some did not. Jesus, after all, once said, “you always have the poor with you” (Matt. 26:11). So, having poor was not the problem. The problem came in the way the wealthy humiliated the poor rather than caring for them. In despising one another, they were despising the Lord himself, especially his sacrifice. What tragic irony! The death of Christ is for everyone and anyone who wants his love. And so a meal designed to remember his death should also be for everyone.
And it gets worse. If you had pulled aside the rich who were eating the Lord’s Supper and asked them, “Do you like church?” They would have said, “Yes, we love church.” (This point was made by John Piper in “Why We Eat the Lord’s Supper, Part 1,” 1 Corinthians 11:23–26, August 3, 2003). They were coming to church to get, seeking “what’s in it for me?” Maybe that same desire looks different in our context, but we certainly have this selfish spirit of consumerism among us. It may not show up so clearly in our practice of the Lord’s Supper, but I’m sure you could think of other ways.
Before I move to the final point about the solution to the problem, let me handle a question that often comes up. At our church we do not generally encourage small groups to take the Lord’s Supper together. I know that may catch you off guard. I know it caught me off guard years ago when I was in a Christian ministry on a college campus. I was on the leadership team, and I remember suggesting at the start of the year that our leadership team take the Lord’s Supper together as a sign of our unity. The staff leader who had oversight of the ministry said we were not going to do that. He told me different churches have different views about the Lord’s Supper, and out of respect for that, we don’t practice it. As I remember that conversation, I do believe he did a good job of shepherding me. But still I felt like I had done something wrong. I felt then as I feel now: the impulse to take the Lord’s Supper with believers who we care deeply about is a good impulse. If you’ve taken the Lord’s Supper in contexts that were not the local church gathering, you’re not evil. You probably did it for great reasons.
But let me explain why we don’t generally practice the Lord’s Supper in small groups or other Bible studies. We only practice the Lord’s Supper when the whole church is invited because of the way this passage stresses that the whole church was invited together. This is the same reason we didn’t practice the Lord’s Supper when we suspended in-person gatherings. I’ll show you in the passage. Look with me at the repetition of “gather together.” It occurs five times.
17 …when you come together…
18 … when you come together as a church…
20 When you come together…
33 …when you come together to eat…
34 …when you come together
You’ll even notice in v. 33 they are commanded that when they come together, they are to “wait for one another.” How can we wait for the whole church to come to small group when the whole church hasn’t been invited to that small group? We can’t. So we don’t do it.
That was something of a parenthesis, but it comes up often, so I wanted to say something about it. Just to underscore the first main point again, this passage addresses the problem of selfishness that led to disregard for God and his people. Now, what is the solution? Let’s talk about that.
The Solution: Treasure the Body
The solution is very simple. You might have expected Paul to say that God should take away his Table from them. “No more Lord’s Supper for you.” That might have been your solution. “This,” you’d scold them, “is why you can’t have nice things.” But that is because we don’t understand grace. You don’t get to practice the Lord’s Supper because you’ve earned the right. We participate in the Lord’s Supper the same way we get into a relationship with God: grace upon grace.
Rather than taking the Supper from them, Paul quotes from Jesus and tells them, “Do this . . .” Paul’s solution to taking the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner is not to stop taking the Supper, but to take the Supper in a worthy manner.
So, there are some good, introspective questions we should ask ourselves. After all, in v. 28, Paul commands that “a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.” This is why we often tell people that if they know they are not a Christian, it would be better for them not to take communion. We don’t want to put people in a situation, we’ll often say, where they say something untrue of themselves. But even to believers, the Table invites us to consider how we treat one another.
In preaching on this passage, one pastor encouraged his congregation to consider these questions: “Do I have any uncharitable thoughts of others in this body? Any lack of forgiveness? Anything I need to ask forgiveness for? Am I committed to them? Am I serving others in this body? Maybe more importantly, am I making it easy for others to love and to serve me in this body?” Then he added, “When we all come like that, we all are nourished, and all are filled” (Jason Helopoulos, “See the Word – The Lord’s Table,” on 1 Corinthians 11:23-32 at University Reformed Church, July 14, 2019).
Those are good questions. But we should be careful how much time we give them. The words of Jesus go like this: “Do this in remembrance of me.” The object of our attention is not supposed to be mainly on our sin. Jesus did not say, “Do this in remembrance of your sin.” I know, I know, I know—I could go too far here. Of course to truly appreciate Jesus, we need to appreciate that we are sinners. So if we are to think about how wonderful Jesus is, we need to know how bad we are. I get that. But, again, I simply point to the words of Jesus. He told us to do this in remembrance of him.
Some of you are genuine believers but you’re tempted to stay back from the Table because you think you need to reach some level of holiness before you can partake of the Supper. The opposite may be true. You might need to come to the Table so that you can be strong enough in faith to obey. The statement of faith by our denomination states, “The Lord Jesus mandated two ordinances, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, which visibly and tangibly express the gospel. Though they are not the means of salvation, when celebrated by the church in genuine faith, these ordinances confirm and nourish the believer” (EFCA Statement of Faith, article 7). The solution Paul gives to their selfishness is not to stop taking the Lord’s Supper but to take it rightly, in remembrance of Jesus. God has given us a meal for our forgetfulness.
Well, we’ve come to the end, and I realize that just as in the sermon on baptism, there are many questions I haven’t answered. What is the right frequency for a church to take the Lord’s Supper? How can we practice the Lord’s Supper so that it doesn’t make people feel left out if they don’t come forward? Should we call it the Lord’s Supper, Communion, or Eucharist? And should we call them sacraments or ordinances? Should we offer wine instead of grape juice or serve both? When Jesus says, “This is my body and blood,” in what sense is he present in the Supper—in what sense are the elements his body and blood? What is the proper age for coming to the Table, if there is such an age? And in a believer’s baptist framework, which we have, should a person be baptized before coming to the Table, that is, have the wedding before the anniversary meal?
I have thoughts on all of those. But let’s end somewhere else. Let me come back to what I said before about how we do not generally encourage Bible study groups to take the Lord’s Supper. Sometimes a small group can become really close friends. So why not take The Lord’s Supper together? I gave a reason, but I’ll close by coming at this from another angle.
The Lord’s Supper is actually not for the group of believers who are already super close and super good friends. The Lord’s Supper is for when you don’t get along, when there are rich and poor, men and women, young and old, and so on. That’s when the Lord’s Supper is at its best. This has become very personal to me, actually. I’ll explain. I think about people who have left our church over the last few years. Maybe we saw Covid differently or government or systemic racism or something else controversial. Maybe we should be praying and focusing on the midterm elections more.
With so many who left, I would maintain that even though we saw some secondary matters differently, we still actually shared the same hope of Jesus Christ: his body broken, his blood shed, and his sure return at the end of time. We shared that hope. And it’s these times, on Communion Sundays—times when we disagree on secondary matters but still cling to Christ together—that I find myself most wishing certain people were still here: so we could all, with hearts bowed low at the foot of the cross, stand in the same line, receiving grace from God from one bread and cup.
The best part of taking communion together—and this will sound weird—is doing it with people you might not like or might have disagreements with or people with way more money than you or way less money than you. The best part of taking communion together is so that we all can proclaim to each other the biggest and brightest truths: we are sinners saved by Jesus, and Jesus will come again to set the world right.
Speaking of having something in common, next week we’ll talk about planting churches. And every church has this one thing in common: at one point or another every church was a church plant. I’ll invite the music team forward so we can have a time of response through singing. Let’s pray. “Dear Heavenly Father, thank you that in the Lord’s Supper, what is invisible to us becomes visible. Thank you for making a meal for our forgetfulness. . .”
Sermon Discussion Questions
Do you take the Lord’s Supper when it’s offered at a church? Why or why not?
Different churches have different practices of the Lord’s Supper. What are some ways you’ve appreciated how others have practiced the Lord’s Supper?
In what ways was the church in Corinth undermining the gospel as they gathered together? At the level of the heart, what was the cause of that undermining?
In what ways might we be guilty of these same issues of the heart? How do these sins of the heart work themselves out in our church?
What stood out to you today from the whole worship service, not just the sermon on the Lord’s Supper? How do other parts of the worship service act like “signs” that point us to the whole Christian message, especially the good news message of Jesus?
