Turn to 1 Corinthians 11 please. This message is about the Lord’s Supper, and we’re looking at this today because after the service this morning we will have the Lord’s Supper and we will eat a meal together. That’s much like what the Corinthian church did every Sunday, and what every first century church did. So this is a good Sunday for us to read this Scripture.
There was a problem with how the Corinthian church was acting at this meal, and that’s what we’ll look at. Our church does not have their problem. I’m not trying to correct anything here. But we still need to understand this Scripture. Paul told them that they were eating the bread and drinking the cup “unworthily.” What is unworthy eating and drinking? What is the difference between eating and drinking unworthily, and worthy eating and drinking?
1 Meeting on the Lord’s Day in Corinth
In the Roman world, Sunday was a regular working day. The churches met Sunday after work, because Sunday was the first day of the week, and the Lord rose from the dead on the first day of the week. Every Sunday was Easter celebration.
And a community meal was always a part of this, and it will have been something like our potluck. So they had a meal together, and the Lord’s Supper was bound up with this meal, and after the meal they will have what we call a church service, a worship service.
There will have been people in every church that barely got enough food day to day. If people like that can have one real good meal a week, and can take home some leftovers, that would be a big help. It would be an important part of how the poor people managed to survive, and how the wealthier ones could help the poor ones on a regular basis.
These poorer people would bring little or nothing to the church meal, and everyone in the church understood that. That’s how it worked. That how they shared with each other.
2 What Was Wrong with The Corinthian Supper? 1 Corinthians 11:20–22, 33–34
Verses 20–22 So then, when you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, for when you are eating, some of you go ahead with your own suppers. As a result, one person remains hungry and another gets drunk. Don’t you have homes 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 praise you? Certainly not in this matter!
Verses 33–34 So then, my brothers and sisters, when you gather to eat, you should wait for one another. Anyone who is hungry should eat something at home, so that when you meet together it may not result in judgment.
What was wrong? Paul has given us seven brief pictures.
(1) You’re not eating the Lord’s Supper, it’s just your own supper, because you go ahead with your own supper. That means the wealthier ones sat down and ate what they brought as soon as they arrived. They just wanted their own supper.
(2) One person stays hungry and another has too much. The poor don’t have anything to bring, so they don’t have anything to eat. The wealthier ones bring their own food and wine and drink too much. Note: drinking too much does not come up again. Failing to share with each other was a far bigger problem.
(3) Could you not eat or drink in your home? If you are too hungry to wait for everyone to arrive, then have something at home first, so you aren’t so hungry and can wait for others.
(4) In your eating, you despise the church of God. God has made his congregation one body in Christ, members of each other, and you treat the sacred congregation like garbage.
(5) You humiliate those who have nothing. Not only do they go away hungry, they go away shamed, because they could not bring anything. You humiliate the poor.
(6) Verse 33 – So when you gather to eat, wait for one another. Don’t go ahead with your own meal. Wait until everyone is there. The wealthier ones can get there earlier, maybe 5 o’clock. The poor people and the slaves cannot come whenever they want. They need to finish their work day, maybe arrive at 6 or 7. So, says Paul, no one starts until everyone is there.
(7) If you’re too hungry to wait, eat at home, so you don’t bring judgement on yourselves. Of all the ways the Corinthians needed correction, this one alarmed the Lord the most. We’ll talk about that in a few minutes. Find a way, says Paul, to make sure you can wait for everyone.
3 What We Received from the Lord – 1 Corinthians 11:23–26
I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night 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, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
Remember Paul’s opening? “You don’t gather for the Lord’s Supper, you just come to eat your own supper.” For the well-to-do, that was true. But in the Lord’s Supper words we just read, the Lord Jesus puts on the meal. It is his supper. He is the host, and we are all his dinner guests. He took the bread. He gave thanks. He broke the loaf. He said, this is my body, eat in remembrance of me. He is not only the host, he is the meal. We eat his body and drink his covenant blood.
Jesus gave himself so we could eat the bread, his body, and drink the cup, his blood. And then we will turn around and be selfish with each other at this meal? We will just satisfy ourselves, ignore poor brothers and sisters, let them go hungry, and humiliate them because they have nothing? It is a huge contradiction to the bread and the cup.
In Roman society, in Corinthian society, it was normal for several wealthy people to gather for dinner together. And while they ate, there would be lots of servants and slaves around to prepare food and serve them and wait on the guests. But none of those people ate the special meal, only the wealthy guests. That was normal, just the way it was. The wealthy ones thought this was all right and proper. They thought they deserved this.
In the Corinthian church, the wealthy believers continued just like that. They were not troubled by it. Too much world in the church.
4 Eating and Drinking Unworthily – 1 Corinthians 11:27–29
So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves.
Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. Everyone ought to examine themselves.
In my church tradition, and I know this is still common in our circles, something weird happened with “examine yourselves.” My leaders completely separated unworthy eating and drinking from the meal problems Paul described in verses 21–22. “Examining ourselves” came to mean something totally different. It meant, “ask yourself if there is sin in your life, ask yourself if you have been a faithful follower of the Lord in the last week or two.”
Those self examining questions have nothing to do with what made the Corinthian believers unworthy, but that’s how I was taught to understand these verses. It is a disastrous mistake. With this unfortunate tradition, struggling believers, who most of all need the Lord’s death for their sins, now feel guilty for participating in the Lord’s Supper. They fear they have brought judgment on themselves. They dread the Lord’s Supper in church because it confronts them with their failures.
This mistake comes from the pit, from the evil one. He loves to twist God’s words and deceive us, and he loves to accuse us. People who love the Lord continue to teach this. They are innocent, but the mistake is not innocent, it is evil, from the dark side. Jesus taught us that we all need the Father’s forgiveness every day. Why would that keep us from the Lord’s Supper?
Verses 21–22 describe eating and drinking unworthily. It is how believers treat each other at the meal. It is about body life at the actual meal. I have a commentary published 125 years ago that explains this properly. It’s not new thinking (Expositor’s Greek Testament, 5 volumes, 1900).
“Examine yourselves” means “take a hard look at how you are treating other believers in the meal you have together. Are you courteous and generous with those who have less? Do you make sure everyone has enough food? Or are you just trying to feed yourself as fast as you can? Examine yourself!”
Perhaps we don’t realize how much tradition we have. It is not written down, but we have much tradition that tells us what certain Scriptures mean. Often our tradition is right, but this is one of the places where it is profoundly wrong. So wrong about “examine yourselves.”
5 The Lord’s Judgement – 1 Corinthians 11:30–32
That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment. Nevertheless, when we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally condemned with the world.
The Corinthian church was the most misbehaving church described in the New Testament. If there was a church like that in Kleefeld, down the road from us, we would probably want to break off all ties with them, and not associate with them at all. We would probably not want to have “church in the park” with a church like that.
They were divided into cliques, they had sexual immorality ongoing in the church and they did nothing about it, they were cheating each other in business, and suing each other in court, some of them were attending meals that celebrated pagan gods, some of them denied the resurrection, they thought the gift of tongues was the only gift that mattered, and so on.
Did those things mean they should not have the Lord’s Supper? Not at all. Did any of those things bring the Lord’s discipline on them? No. Only one thing brought the Lord’s discipline on them, and that was how they treated each other at the Lord’s Supper, those points we began with.
Nevertheless, when we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally condemned with the world. People, this line is a keeper. Some of them were sick because of the Lord’s discipline, and some had died, because of the way they treated each other at the meal.
Is the Lord disciplining them because he’s angry? No. Frustrated? No. Can’t stand it anymore? No. The Lord does not want them finally condemned with the world. They have genuinely put their trust in the Lord, and he is determined to save them from the coming wrath. As severe as the Lord’s discipline is, it is a lot better than what he’s saving them from. The discipline comes from the great Shepherd who is resolved to keep us. He loves us very much.
We can see the same thing earlier with the immoral man in 1 Corinthians 5, whom Paul wanted put out of the church. Was the man put out because the Lord was finished with that man? Not at all. Put him out so that his soul will be saved on the day of the Lord. Even in severe discipline, people, the Lord acts on his faithful love for us – he is working to save us and to keep us. The Lord knows that sometimes that takes drastic action, so he takes drastic action. To keep us.
6 Never Avoid the Lord’s Supper because You are a Sinner
Never. In Matthew’s account of the Last Supper, Jesus takes the cup and says, “Drink this, all of you, this is my blood of the covenant, poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” Drink from this, all of you. Why? Because you need this covenant, and you need your sins forgiven.”
The Lord’s Supper is a great place to repent and receive forgiveness. Drink the cup of forgiveness! None of us is worthy, ever, and that is the very reason we eat and drink. We read these words sometimes:
“Let us come to His table!
Not because we are strong, but because we are weak.
Let us come, not because our goodness gives us the right to come,
But because we need help and mercy.
Let us come because Jesus loved us, and gave himself for us.
Let us come because he invites us to eat and drink, and he offers us himself.
He wants to meet us at this table. Come.”
I don’t know who wrote that, but I’m sure it intends to correct the kind of teaching I grew up with. The Lord’s Supper is for sinners who need mercy and forgiveness.
7 What Troubles the Lord?
What one thing did the Corinthians do that brought the Lord’s discipline on them? They pursued their own desires and appetites without concern for their church body, not caring about the good of the whole congregation. They actually did that a lot, but the worst, as far as the Lord was concerned, was when they did it at his meal, in memory of his death.
What if the Lord cares less about our private spiritual successes and failures than we thought, and he cared more about our relationship to our congregation than we thought? We find that hard to believe, but it’s true.
One way or the other, we are all sinners. And that’s why we eat the bread, the body that was given for us, and that’s why we drink the covenant cup, the cup of forgiveness. Thank you, Lord. Amen.
PRAYER: Lord, thank you for the people long ago who studied 1 Corinthians carefully enough to figure out what eating unworthily was about. Thank you for your Spirit, who led them to write it down, and get it printed. Thank you for these books that freed me and others from unhappy teaching.
Lord, keep our eyes on each other, and not on our own appetites. I need help here, as do we all. We are not better than they were. Thank you for the right things that happen among us; may they increase.
Thank you for the bread and the cup, Lord, thank you for feeding us with yourself. Lead us with your Spirit in how we actually observe this, so that our celebration honours you. Amen.
BENEDICTION: Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip us with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. Go in God’s peace to love and serve the Lord.