Sweet Communion, Blind Eyes

“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.” Most of us could sing that song in our sleep. And most of us know at least a little about the man who wrote it.

His name was John Newton. And long before he ever wrote a hymn, he was a sailor in the slave trade. A man who, by his own account, mocked the faith and everyone who believed it.

Then in 1748, his ship was nearly torn apart by a storm in the North Atlantic. And in the middle of that storm, John Newton cried out to God. And God saved him.

Now, that’s usually where the story speeds up. He becomes a pastor. He writes “Amazing Grace.” A happy ending. But that’s not what happened next.

Because after John Newton became a Christian, he went back to the slave trade. For several more years he sailed to Africa, eventually as the captain of a slave ship, carrying humans across the ocean to be sold.

Years later, looking back on those voyages, he wrote this: “I never knew sweeter or more frequent hours of divine communion than in my two last voyages to Guinea.”

Think about that. Up on deck, John Newton was praying and enjoying what he called the sweetest fellowship with God he had ever known. And below his feet, in the hold of that same ship, were men and women in chains.

And he didn’t see it. He felt close to God, and he never noticed what he was doing to the people made in the image of God right beneath him.

Now, nobody in this room is doing anything like what John Newton did. But that’s not what scares me about his story. What scares me is how close to God he felt, and how blind he was to the people under his feet.

Because that’s very much possible. You can sing the songs, sense God’s presence, and walk out of church with tears in your eyes, and still not see what you’re doing to the person sitting right next to you.

Which was exactly what was happening in Corinth. The Corinthians were gathering. They were still eating the bread and drinking the cup. But Paul looks at what they’re doing and says, “Don’t you see what you’re doing?” “Don’t you see that you’re trampling on the body and blood of the Lord?” Which means, “When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you are even keeping.”

And so if we we want to avoid being like Corinth, and truly take the Lord’s supper properly, we must:

To keep the Lord's Supper the Lord's, we must:

1. Reject Our Own Supper (vv. 17–22)
2. Remember What He Gave (vv. 23–25)
3. Retell His Death Until He Comes (v. 26)

1. Reject Our Own Supper (vv. 17–22)

Last week we began a short series on communion by looking at chapter 10. And for me, understanding that passage opened up chapter 11 in a brand new way. So if you missed that sermon, you really need to go back and listen to it.

In chapter 10, the Corinthians thought they were mature enough to sit down at an idol’s feast and walk away spiritually unharmed. And in response to that, Paul pointed them to Israel in the wilderness, and showed them how God judged them for that same attitude. Because privilege cannot protect a divided heart.

See, all of have a choice to make. And it’s a choice between two tables: The Lord’s table. Or the world’s. And the world’s table is run by demons.

So last week’s question was: “Whose table are you sitting at?” and the Paul asks us this week is: “How are you treating the people sitting with you?”

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.

1 Corinthians 11:17–22 ESV

In the first part of this chapter, Paul commends them, But here, he condemns them for how they are approaching the table. And in verse 17, he’s pretty direct about it. He says: “You’re coming to church - but you’re leaving worse off than when you came!”

And that’s a REALLY big deal. Because the church is meant to be a embassy or a refuge for God’s people in the midst a dark, demon-infested world. And yet, instead of strengthening them for the fight, it was weakening them.

And why was this happening? Verse 18 tells us. Divisions. Verse 19: Factions.

And that’s something Paul already addressed earlier in the book, when everybody was fighting about their favorite preacher and Christian podcast. And Paul told them to knock-it-off, because all of God’s servants are gifts from the Lord.

But Paul’s not talking preacher preferences here. He’s talking about social divisions. The church has followed a social caste system, by organizing themselves into groups. and those divided groups showed up at the table of the Lord. Which makes no sense at all. Because in Christ there is no slave or free. Male or female. Jew or Gentile. Because Christ brought down the dividing wall of hostility with the breaking of His body, and the shedding of His blood.

And yet… are we any different today church? Sadly, often not. Sure, we aren’t dividing in the same ways Corinth was, but we still divide. We divide over personality differences and music preferences. We divide over minor theological differences. We divide over age. We divide over political differences. And all of that is just Corinth stuff. Which is why the death mark of a church is a church that’s known for being “CLIQUE.”

And the reason that’s so sad isn’t because people get left out. OK, that is sad. But the even sadder reason is because it means the gospel is being left out. In CHRIST we are ONE BODY! We are ONE PEOPLE! And Christ shed His blood to make us that! And a church that is cliquey, is a church that has either forgotten that, or stopped caring about that.

This is why we are so incredibly careful as a church with our age-based ministries. Yes, children’s ministry is great. Yes, Youth Group is wonderful. Yes, Senior Group is a great thing. But when those good things become ultimate things, we lose sight of the gospel that unites us by Jesus’s death on the cross.

Verse 19 comes with a serious warning about this too. Notice what Paul says: “for their must be factions among you…” Why? “so that those who are genuine among you may be recognized.”

Paul isn’t saying that division is good. He’s saying that God uses division for something good. And the situation is actually quite ironic… Because the division causers were dividing because they thought they were the “genuinely approved ones,” That’s what the word genuine means. It means: “tested and approved.” But here Paul is saying: “You’re approved of nothing but division and disobedience the Lord.” You’re not living faithfully at all!

That means, the very people a church treats as important. As “tested and approved” aren’t always the people God approves.

Then in verse 20, Paul tells them they are sitting at the Lord’s table, but they aren’t taking part in His meal. And verse 21 tells us why: “For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry and another gets drunk.”

In the early church, They took communion every week And when the church came together for the Lord’s Supper, it was often accompanied with something called “a love feast.” Which was basically our version of a potluck meal. But the Corinthians Christians had turned the love feast into a selfish feast, because the rich weren’t sharing with the poor. They were feasting on steak, well the poor were munching on PBJ’s and Saltine Crackers…

Back then, there was no such thing as weekend where most everyone was off of work. Unless you were rich. So most likely what was happening was the rich were showing up early and starting the feast without the workers and slaves. But however it happened, Paul tells us the results: Some went hungry while others were getting drunk.

Can you imagine that? Showing up at church some Sunday for potluck, and the foods already pretty-much gone, and the only thing left is a bit of tater-tot hot dish! All while deacon so-in-so is stuffed full and drunk? That was Corinth!

It was supposed to be the Lord’s supper, but each one had gone ahead with their own meal. And Who did the meal belong to? It belonged to the Lord. It was His table. And yet, they were treating it like it was their table.

In verse 22, Paul’s perturbed. He says: “Don’t you have houses to eat and drink in?” In other words, if you’re just here to get your belly’s fed, can’t you do that at home?” Because that’s not what this is for! And treating it like that, isn’t just being inhospitable, Paul says. It’s to despise the church of God and humiliate the poor.

Are you picking up on the horizontal dimension here and how it relates the vertical? Paul is saying, the way you treat the poor is the way you’re treating God. Back in chapter 8, Paul said: “When you sin against your brothers you’re sinning against Christ.”

So I with Corinth in mind, I ask you: How are you treating the poor? The financially poor. The social poor and awkward. Those who have little to offer you and will mostly drain you? Because Paul says how you treat them is how you’re treating Christ.

Practically here. When the service is over, who do you talk to? Is the same few people… or do you try to connect with people outside your social class? Who do you invite over? Who are you praying for? And if you’re rich, which in a way we all are, how are you using what you have to serve the needs of others?

John Newton could pray on the deck for hours, and never think about the people below it. So who’s the person in this church you never really see?

A lecture on good manners will never solve this, will it? It won’t. It might help break up a church’s cliques for a week or two. But the problem will just return. Which is why we must not only reject our own supper, but we must remember what He gave.

To keep the Lord's Supper the Lord's, we must:

2. Remember What He Gave (vv. 23–25)

In verse 23, Paul tells us the solution to all of these problems, when he writes:

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.”

1 Corinthians 11:23–25 ESV

Paul’s answer isn’t something he came up. In verse 23, he tells us it’s something he recieved from the Lord Himself. And that means we don’t get to redefine it! Why do we come together as a church and fellowship at the Lord’s Table at all? It’s because of what Jesus did on a night some 2,000 years ago.

When Jesus gathered with His disciples in the upper room, And He instituted the Lord’s Supper. Think about what He knew… He knew Judas was about to betray Him. He knew the disciples would scatter and abandon Him. He knew Peter would deny Him three times before morning. And He knew that he would be arrested, beaten, mocked, and nailed to a cross within hours. And yet what was He doing? He was sharing in a meal with His disciples.

And look at His attitude in the midst of all of this knowing… “And when He had given THANKS, He broke it and said…” “This is my body, which is for you.”

Now contrast this with the scene Paul has just finished describing in Corinth… “Each one goes ahead with own meal…” “Some get drunk… while others go hungry.” Do you see the difference? One describes people taking care of themselves at the expense of others. While the other describes our Savior giving Himself for the sake of others. And they had the nerve to do this at HIS TABLE, A table they were invited to mind you, solely because what Christ had done for them!

That’s what makes verse 21 so ugly. Some ate their fill, while the poor believer sat there going hungry, and the poor believer was someone Christ’s body was given for.

Christ showed us the attitude we are to have when taking the bread and the cup, and it was an attitude of gratitude. And as Christians, we should be the most thankful people of them all! Because Christ, the Son of the Living God literally died for us! Show me another god who does that kind of thing!

And yet, the Corinthian Christian’s unthankful attitude revealed more than it might seem. Because underneath an attitude of ingratitude, is an attitude that says: “I deserve this.” My friend, no, you do not. No, I do not. For none of us deserves Christ’s death on the cross paying for our sins! None of us deserves an invite to His table! And yet… By God’s grace… We are all invited. Rich and poor. Slave and free. Male and female. Jew and gentile.

Do you see why we always say around here that you never graduate beyond the gospel? It’s because you don’t! And if you forget it - even for a second. It will wreak spiritual devastation upon you and Christ’s church.

We become clique-ish. We become selfish, and demand to have everything our way. To be served, rather than serve. And all of that is an attitude of ingratitude for the heavy cost for our seat at the table. “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.”

When we hear that word “remember,” we usually think of recalling something. Something like remembering your wife’s birthday. Remembering your anniversary. Or what you are supposed to that afternoon. And yes, we remember… But church, Communion isn’t a history lesson of an event we’ve heard a thousand times. Communion is communing with our Lord and Savior, as we remember and fellowship with our God Who is ALIVE!

When it comes to communion, there’s a lot of views on it out there.

First, there is the Roman Catholic view, called Transubstantiation. This view believes that the bread and the cup literally become the body and blood of Christ, And every time they celebrate the Mass, they believe Christ is offered again on the altar as a sacrifice for sin.

¹⁸ Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.

Hebrews 10:18 ESV

And when Jesus said, “This is my body,” He was sitting right there in His body, holding bread in His hands.

The second view is the spiritual presence view. which is held by some Presbyterians and other followers of John Calvin. The idea is that Christ’s body isn’t in the bread. It’s in heaven. But as we take the bread and cup by faith, the Holy Spirit brings us into real fellowship with Christ, and God strengthens us with His grace as we receive it.

Third, there is the Consubstantiation view, And this view was the one Martin Luther held. Lutherans don’t actually like that word, but here’s the idea. This view says, it’s both… Sort of. Unlike the Roman Catholic view, the bread stays bread and the wine stays wine. Nothing changes into something else. But Lutherans believe Christ’s real body and blood are truly present “in, with, and under” the bread and the cup. So when you take Communion, you’re receiving bread and wine, and you’re also somehow receiving Christ’s actual body and blood along with them.

Fourth and finally, there is the memorial view. This view was held by Zwingli, and most Baptist and evangelical churches today hold this view. It sees the bread and the wine as symbols of Christ’s body and blood. It doesn’t believe Christ’s body is present in any special sense in the elements.

So, which of the four is the right view? AND DON’T SAY, “YES” Cuz this isn’t one of those times.

When it comes to the bread and the cup, the memorial view gets it right. The bread is bread. And the juice stays juice. But here’s where I think a lot of us have gone wrong.

We’ve all heard people say: “It’s just a memorial.” And the problem is that word “just.”

Because last week Paul told us the cup is “a participation in the blood of Christ,” and the bread is “a participation in the body of Christ.” That’s real fellowship. Not because Jesus is hiding in the bread, but because the Savior it points to is alive, and He’s HERE WITH US!

So the bread is a symbol. But what happens at this Table isn’t just remembering something… Yes, we remember Him. But we also meet with Him.

And this isn’t some new idea I came up with. That’s what Baptists have confessed for a long time. The 1689 Baptist Confession says: at communion we: “spiritually receive and feed upon Christ crucified,” and that Christ is present, not in the bread, but “to the faith of believers.”

Now why am I telling you this? Is it because I had a shorter sermon and needed to fill space? No… quite the opposite actually. It’s because, if we don’t understand what communion is, we won’t understand its incredible importance in our lives! We won’t take it seriously. We won’t understand what it is we are actually doing and Who we are doing it with. And instead, we’ll turn it into “just a memorial,” and the measure of it’s success will be based upon HOW WE FEEl, INSTEAD OF WHAT IS REAL! And it is real is that OUR SAVIOR IS NOT DEAD, HE IS ALIVE!

Newton said he never knew sweeter hours of communion with God than on that slave ship. He had the feelings. But his feelings didn’t tell him the truth.

This is why, once we truly understand what communion is, we don’t need to measure it by the music being just right. The lighting just right. Whether there are tears in our eyes, or emotions in our heart. That’s JUST sentimentality! And not only that. It’s not taking communion WITH THANKS, Nor is it remembering WHO IS WITH US when we do it!

The solution to doing communion rightly isn’t to do it less often so it feels more sentimental. The solution is doing it with a FULL UNDERSTANDING and APPRECIATION of WHY we get to do it, AND WHO WE ARE DOING IT WITH! When we take these elements, We take them WITH one another, But we take them WITH our Lord, Who on the night He was betrayed, gave THANKS, and said: “This is my body broken for you.” “Do this in remembrance of me.”

Verse 25 reads:

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.”

1 Corinthians 11:25 ESV

A lot of ink has been spilt on this verse, and what this New Covenant means for us as Christians. But to understand this verse, we first have to understand what a covenant even is. In short, it’s a binding relationship that God establishes that come with promises and privileges attached.

And the Old Covenant that this one replaces, Began with Israel at Mount Sinai. God gave them His law. The people promised to obey it. And as you know, they broke it over, and over, and over again.

But when Jesus says “New Covenant” He’s taking us back to a promise God made through the prophet Jeremiah.

³¹ “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, ³² not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. ³³ For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ³⁴ And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

Jeremiah 31:31–34 ESV

So that’s what God promised, But who did He make that promise to? Verse 31 tells us. The house of Israel and the house of Judah.

But I thought God was all done with Israel? Well, to that you have to keep reading Jeremiah 31.

³⁵ Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar— the Lord of hosts is his name: ³⁶ “If this fixed order departs from before me, declares the Lord, then shall the offspring of Israel cease from being a nation before me forever.” ³⁷ Thus says the Lord: “If the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth below can be explored, then I will cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done, declares the Lord.”

Jeremiah 31:35–37 ESV

Church, God has not abandoned Israel. Because where the old covenant could not make them righteous, the NEW WILL! At Sinai, Moses threw the blood of the sacrifice on the people and said: “Behold the blood of the covenant.” And that covenant required sacrifice, after sacrifice, after sacrifice. It was never-ending, because the people’s sin was never ending.

But now Jesus holds up a cup and says: “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.” And it is His death that ratifies it! And unlike the blood of bulls and goats, this sacrifice doesn’t need to keep happening! It’s ONCE AND FOR ALL! Which is why Jesus cried out upon the cross: “IT IS FINISHED!”

This is why we repeat the supper, but not the sacrifice! Because we are remembering: “Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe.” “Sin had left a crimson stain, but He washed me white as snow!”

But if the covenant was given to Israel, Why does Paul give this cup to a gentile church at Corinth? They weren't the house of Israel or the house of Judah. The reason is because through Jesus Christ and His shed blood, Christ, the Mediator of the covenant invites us into it to share in the blessings it provides. Right now the spiritual blessings of our sins being paid for and fellowship with God! And one day soon, the physical blessings of the Kingdom, where Israel will be restored, we will be resurrected to new undying and sinless bodies, and Christ will rule and reign and as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And THAT is what we are proclaiming every time we sit as His table.

To keep the Lord's Supper the Lord's, we must:

3. Retell His Death Until He Comes (v. 26)

In verse 26, Paul writes:

²⁶ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

1 Corinthians 11:26 ESV

Church, when we gather and eat and drink at Christ’s table, We not only fellowship with Christ Himself, We “proclaim.” Which means to announce something publicly. Do you see what this means? It means that after I preach, All of us preach a second sermon that you taste!

It’s no secret that the Lord’s Table comes right out of passover. And in Exodus 13:8, when Israel kept the Passover, God told the fathers:

⁸ You shall tell your son on that day, ‘It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’

Exodus 13:8 ESV

That passover meal came with a story, and the story was told every single time. And the same is true of us church. Every time we come to the this Table, we retell the story of the perfect and spotless Lamb who was slain. We tell of how we too were marked for death, but by His blood on the door of our hearts we were passed over.

And so in communion, Yes, we remember, Yes, we relate with God, But we also retell what our God has done for us.

The church in Corinth was failing to do all three. They were eating a meal that preached self-interest, not sacrificial service. Their mouths proclaimed the Lord’s death, but their actions preached it didn’t matter. And so the question for us is simple: What does our table preach?

Paul says: “as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim.” What are we proclaiming? With our words, with our mouths, and with our lives? Because we aren’t just proclaiming a dead hero. We are proclaiming our living Savior. Who gave us His body and shed His blood. To conquer sin, death, and hell. So that we might be passed over by God’s wrath, and live in perfect fellowship with Him now and forevermore.

When grace really gets hold of us, our lives start proclaiming the same thing our mouths do. That’s what happened to John Newton. Years later, God opened his eyes. and he wrote that he would always be humiliated that he had been part of “a business at which my heart now shudders.”

And that’s why he could write: “I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.” That’s what grace does. And through simple faith. God doesn’t just forgive the blind. He makes them see.

And as people who have been made to see, we now proclaim His death “until He comes.” Because one day soon we won’t need the bread and the cup to remember Him. We’ll see Him face to face, and sit down with Him at a far greater table.

If you’ve trusted in Christ, followed Him in believer’s baptism, and are walking in covenant fellowship with this church or a church of like faith and practice, we invite you to come and lay down your own supper, and receive His.

And if you’ve never trusted Christ, the bread and the cup can’t save you. But the Savior they proclaim can. And so turn from your sin and trust Him today. Because as often as we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.

This is the manuscript the sermon was preached from, so the recording may differ in places.