THE LORD'S SUPPER
1 Corinthians 11:23-26 NKJV
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; 24 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.” 25 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.”
26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.
I am amazed at this Corinthian church. What problems did they not have? Actually, they were not behind in spiritual gifts. They did not utilize spiritual gifts well, but at least they were present.
Our verses for today deal with the topic of communion or the Lord's Supper. Paul was addressing the errors in the church. People were making a party out of the Lord's table. Some were drunk, some did not get enough to eat, and some were eating before everyone else. These believers were new and raw, and they stepped over the line time and time again. So Paul is clarifying the purpose and observation of the Lord's Supper.
Paul reminds the church that he had received from the Lord instructions regarding the communion meal. And he slips in the fact that he had already communicated this to the church, but he was going to go over it again. The night Jesus was betrayed, he gave thanks and broke the bread. Jesus gave the bread to His disciples with the instructions to eat. The bread was symbolic of Jesus' broken body. And Jesus declared that His body was broken for them. So, whenever they ate the communion meal, they were reminding themselves what Jesus did for them.
After supper, Jesus took the cup and declared it to be a symbol of the new covenant. The wine in the cup represented Jesus' blood. To people familiar with a blood covenant, this made perfect sense. Covenants were often sealed in blood. In taking the communion cup the disciples would be reminding themselves of the death that Jesus died for them. And as long as they would eat the bread and drink of the cup, they were proclaiming the Lord's death until He comes back.
APPLICATION
The Lord's Supper is one of the foundations of the church. Today, some 2000 years later, we are still eating the bread and drinking of the cup. Today, we don't associate the Lord's Supper with a meal. But by eating the bread, we are acknowledging that Jesus' body was broken for us. The fact that His body was broken for us is part of God's big plan of redemption. Now we are redeemed from the sickness and disease that breaks our bodies today. Jesus' body was broken so that ours doesn't have to be.
And when we drink of the cup, we acknowledge that Jesus' blood has washed us and cleansed us from our sins. Now, we have a covenant with God that is far superior to what the nation of Israel had before Jesus came. We have a new covenant that is established on better promises than what the old covenant had to offer.
PRAYER
Thank you, Lord, for Your body that was broken and Your blood that was poured out. I acknowledge Your death and acknowledge that You are coming again.