The “Lord’s Supper” Is WAY More Important Than You Thought

[0:00] the Lord's Supper has nothing to do with a tiny cracker a thimble full of grape juice and mourning how awful you are the Lord's Supper the way that it was described on the pages of the Bible in 1 Corinthians chap 11 specifically was a meal a full meal shared by all of the people in that area who were followers of Jesus Christ exactly the kind that you might share at your own table with your closest and most dear loved ones which is radically different enough for most of us I think but what if I also told you that each time we take part in the Lord's supper we're not just sharing in a meal we traveling through time from the ancient Passover to the last supper and looking forward to the Eternal feast in the kingdom of God this is more than just a ritual it's a profound journey and what I want to do now is explore how the simple Act of enjoying a mutually blessing meal with your brothers and sisters in Christ eating the bread and

[0:48] drinking from the cup connects us with the past unites Us in the present and fills us with hope for our Eternal future now we'll get to the basics of the real backstory to this whole episode in a minute including the Passover meal and the Last Supper very important but first I wanted to just take us straight into the passage at hand which as it turns out is in 1 Corinthians 11 starting really in verse 17 we've read these verses on the channel before but let's just go through them again briefly in the following directives I have no praise for you for the meetings you have are more harm than good in the first place I hear that when you come together as a church there are divisions among you and to some extent I believe it no doubt there have to be differen among you to show which of you have God's approval so then when you come together it is not the Lord's Supper you eat or when you are eating some of you go ahead with your own private suppers as a result one person remains hungry and

[1:35] another gets drunk pause for a second depending on your church tradition the Lord's Supper is either going to be called straightforwardly The Lord's supper or something like the Eucharist but in both cases what you typically are have going to have is a little fimble full of grape juice and a little unleavened cracker extremely common experience does that sound like what was happening here I don't know about you but a thimble full of grape juice isn't going to do anything to move me in the direction of drunkenness and eating a single cracker isn't going to do anything to change the state of my Hunger one way or the other so that should cause us to question here when Paul says as a result one person remains hungry and another gets drunk if we're talking about a thimble full of grape juice and a cracker those aren't realistic outcomes but that's not the problem he points out the problem he points out is their harmful meetings are exposing divisions amongst the Brethren and those divisions are manifesting in the fact that some people are just

[2:23] eating food they brought themselves it's imagine you go to a potluck and you bring a whole raft of food and then you just sit down with your own nuclear family in the corner and you're eating all this food that you didn't bring to share with anybody that's an issue because it's not creating that unity in the rest of the body of Christ he continues on don't you have homes to eat and drink in or do you despise the Church of God by humiliating those who have nothing what shall I say to you shall I praise you certainly not in this matter and we're about to enter into those verses that are read aloud whenever we do the Lord's Supper in our churches but just hit time out for a minute this whole section Paul introduces by saying you guys are getting together your meetings are harmful there are division ISS among you you're not considering one another and it all centers around this meal that they're sitting down to eat together which he calls the Lord's Supper the problem was that people were bringing a bunch of food and they were eating it

[3:10] and and they were getting drunk off of the wine they were bringing and they weren't sharing with other people who were being excluded and some people were leaving hungry now that obviously should make you stop and think okay there's like a class discrepancy here there's some people who come and they don't have the opportunity to bring anything and that's why they're leaving hungry whereas some other people are who seem to be accustomed to taking very good care of themselves are eating more than their fill and drinking so much that they get drunk so there's a discrepancy between those who have a lot and those who have not near enough in Paul's words they're despising the Church of God by humiliating those who have nothing and it's in that context that he speaks these other words let's go and see what he has to say from here for 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

[3:58] 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 and if you've ever been in a communion service or if you've ever taken the Eucharist these verses are familiar to you but I bet you didn't know that they were spoken in this context of a communal meal now obviously these words are enormously powerful but the simple surface level understanding is that there's a meal where body and blood specifically the body and the blood of Christ are Central to the focus and the instructions he gave were for his followers to do this meal in rembrance of him specifically his sacrifice but also the New Covenant that comes from it then Paul says this for whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes and here's our little time travel part Proclaim is a present action it is loudly declaring something the Lord's death even in this context

[4:47] was a past action and until he comes is a future expectation I wonder if you caught that let's look at how Paul finishes this train of thought he says so then whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against 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 that is why many of you are weak and sick and a number of you have fallen asleep now the way that this was usually taught and I come from the conservative Baptist background is that eating the bread or drinking the cup in an unworthy manner was connected with this idea of mourning your own personal sinfulness and certainly we should have awareness of our own sin that we are still allowing in our lives the problem is that that's not to be found anywhere in this passage Paul clarifies what he means by taking

[5:35] the Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner he calls it eating and drinking without Discerning the body of Christ now pause that could on the one hand be the bread in this whole equation where you got the bread which is the body of Christ and then the wine which is his blood that's a live option but where else is the phrase Body of Christ used this phrase is used way more frequently all throughout the New Testament to refer to the Gathering of Believers the people who are in Christ who make up his hands and feet in the world in other words the other people in the church which sounds an awful lot like what he was talking about earlier if you were ignoring the other people who make up your body your local Congregation of Believers gorging yourself and getting drunk on wine while other people in your community are going hungry that sounds an awful lot like not Discerning the body of Christ and taking care of it and that connects with the

[6:24] actual thrust of his critique from the verses right before this and Paul says that it's because of this because of their lack of willingness to care for and notice and provide for the other members of that local Body of Christ that they were falling asleep which means dying here's how he finishes that line of thought but if we were more Discerning with regard to ourselves we would not come under such judgment nevertheless when we ar are judged in this way by the Lord we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally condemned with the world then my brothers and sisters when you gather to eat you should all eat together anyone who is hungry should eat something at home so that when you meet together it may may not result in judgment Scholars point out he's probably talking to the wealthier people here because the if the Gathering happened on a Sunday that was a day of work for the servant class in Rome which meant that the Gathering usually happened in the evenings it

[7:11] would have been after they had gotten off of work let's say whereas the wealthy among them didn't have to work on a Sunday and so they could show up early and just eat all this food Paul specifically wants the Believers in Corinth to consider the people who have jobs and can't get there on time to make sure that everybody in the meeting everybody in this local body of Believers is considered and loved and taken care of the community isn't playing favorites with people who have more or less than others now the chances are pretty good that's not really how you've ever had this passage discussed before I want to take you on a tour of the past the present and the future as it relates to the Lord's Supper so let's start at the very beginning of the Lord's Supper which was the Passover this was an ancient Jewish feast described in Exodus 12 and it was actually a foreshadowing of Christ's ultimate sacrifice when

[7:58] Jesus broke bread at the Last Supper he was fulfilling centuries of Prophecy connecting this historical event to a much larger narrative and the entire Passover meal is marked with symbols the Israelites mark their doors with the blood of a lamb a sign for the angel of death to pass over their homes and this act of salvation for shadow to Greater Deliverance to come Passover meal was a commemoration of God's Rescue of the Israelite people during the time of The Exodus where they looked back on a mighty Act of God that brought them out of the power that was going to bring them all to death in Egypt now let's fast forward to the night of the last supper here in an upper room Jesus gathers with his disciples for what they thought was going to be a traditional Passover meal but Jesus transforms it into something far more significant we read in Matthew 26: 26 to 28 that he takes the bread he gives thanks and says

[8:48] this is my body then he takes the cup saying this is my blood of the Covenant which is for you pour out for many for the Forgiveness of sins and in these actions Jesus is doing something revolutionary he's the Passover in term terms of his own death he is the lamb whose blood would be shed for the Salvation of many it's a pivotal moment where history and prophecy converge where the symbolic becomes real the Last Supper is more than a historical event it's a theological anchor it reminds us that our faith is deeply rooted in history in real events in the tangible actions of Jesus Christ but it's also a theological promise that looks forward to something greater a future hope and fulfillment interesting fact again compared with our thimble full of grape juice and our little unleavened cracker both of these were meals as is the meal that Paul is talking about in 1 Corinthians 11 it's a commemorative meal based on recognizing Christ's sacrifice

[9:36] and honoring that sacrifice in the present among the body of Believers that form our community history also tells us that this meal would have been taking place in the context of a home not a church building that's a whole other discussion but in homes with family members and this would have been a weekly occurrence which brings us to our discussion of the Lord's Supper in the present Paul envisions this as a practice that unites us as the body of Christ in 1 Corinthians 10:17 Paul writes because there is one bread we who are many are one body for we all partake of the one bread this isn't just a metaphor for Paul it's a spiritual reality that plays out every time we gather around the table in the act of breaking bread we are reminded of our unity in Christ despite the church's diverse backgrounds cultures and even in modern day our denominations the Lord's

[10:23] Supper should bring us together in a profound expression of fellowship and unity it's a Collective proclamation of our faith a communal remembrance of what Jesus did for us on the cross and all of its implications and if we were to make the corrections that Paul makes in this chapter 1 Corinthians 11 what we would be left with is a time of gratitude of mutual love and consideration of deepening our relationship with Christ it's celebratory it is commemorative it's a moment where time seems to stand still as we pause in the midst of our hectic lives to remember and to commune together with our savior looking back on the sacrifice of his body and blood and looking forward proclaiming the Lord's death until he comes which leads us neatly into the future aspect of the Lord's Supper until he comes is not just

[11:12] a hopeful statement it's a prophetic promise as we partake in this meal we're not only looking back at what Christ has done already we're also looking forward anticipating his return in Revelation 19:9 we read about the wedding supper of the Lamb a grand celebration in the new heavens and the new Earth this future banquet is the culmination of all God's promises where the faithful will gather to Feast with Christ in his eternal Kingdom the Lord's supper if we do it right is a foretaste of this Divine Heavenly celebration a reminder that our story doesn't end here this anticipation fills us with hope in a world often marked by pain Injustice and Brokenness the promise of Christ's return offers us a profound comfort and a reason to persevere it reminds us that our current struggles are temporary that a day is coming when every tear will be wiped

[12:00] away death will be no more and we will celebrate that fact the fact of the ultimate victory Of God over the powers of evil together with him in a meal toasting our savior's goodness and his eternal Victory forever but this brings us back into the present to start talking about the implications for how it should change the way that we view this the way that we live this out and the choices we make when it comes to our expression of the Lord's Supper it should motivate us to live out our faith in Christ with purpose and urgency today knowing that Christ is coming back should Inspire us to spread the good news of God's kingdom which you can learn more about here in my last video and to spread the message of love and Redemption to serve others and to make a garden-like world in our circle of influence in service to Jesus the future aspect of the Lord's Supper is not just about waiting it's about living it's about embodying the values of God's

[12:48] kingdom then here and now as we eagerly await the full realization of God's promises it's a call to active hope to proclaim the Lord's death and all of its implications until he comes and gives us the fullness of that reality now chances are that if you've joined in this video and you aren't up to date on these things yet I may have just uprooted a lot of stuff that might make you feel a little unstable when it comes to the Lord's Supper where before our view was really this is a thimble full of grape juice that symbolizes Christ's blood and the bread that symbolizes his body that we eat and drink whilst Naval gazing at our own awfulness and mourning our sins and it's something that we do in a big church building 501c3 nonprofit where the whole thing is run by a pastor and it's associated with hushed tones and almost a clinical shared sobriety problem is that whole picture really

[13:35] isn't biblical that's thousands of years of tradition piled on top of tradition piled on top of tradition that's taken us really far a field from what the original description of the Lord's Supper was on the pages of scripture and if we take ourselves back to that description it's a communal meal shared in a home of people with different classes where those who bring and contribute to the meal are those who have the means to do and there are other people who are in the body of Christ the local Comm Community who don't have to give who don't have much to share who are nevertheless allowed to come and partake it's an equalizing effect and it's a communal meal where everybody present recognizes that what they're doing is sharing in their shared life together as the body of Christ providing for and nurturing the health and life of the body of Christ looking back with commemorative gratitude on the fact that Christ's sacrifice is what launched this

[14:24] Kingdom of which they're all now part and it's his sacrifice and his death and his resurrection that made them all one body in the first place that's the past in the present they're loving and nourishing and caring for one another while also anticipating and living out now just a glimpse a foretaste of the Eternal future meal pictured in the wedding Feast of the Lamb where all of God's people together with him are celebrating and praising God for his ultimate victory over all evil in the Eternal state if you're anything like me that is heart-wrenchingly beautiful that's something that you want to participate in as often as you can it's not some cold religious ritual it is a profound deep wonderful statement centered on the incomprehensible beauty of God himself and his plan to rescue us

[15:13] even when we were still his enemies and I don't know about you but it sounds like lifegiving it honestly doesn't sound like the kind of thing that I would have to do it sounds like the kind of thing I would get to do in fact I've experienced this often in my life when I've had other members of the body of Christ over into my own home and we prepared a beautiful meal for them but they also brought something to contribute they were blessed by what we prepared and we were blessed by what they prepared and isn't it amazing that when you have a meal like that you can sense the presence of God unifying you with the people that are at your table who are also Believers we find ourselves now in between Thanksgiving and Christmas and unfortunately that's not the experience of a lot of people but if you have Believers at your table isn't there a moment where you pause in gratitude for what you have and for how good good has for how good God has been to you and you anticipate a future day

[16:02] in which everything that is wrong and broken and evil in this world as it stands right now will be made whole and this brings me to a difficult topic because what I really want to do is help people to experience this more and more in their own personal lives and I don't know of any other way to discuss this other than as a counter movement to the concept of the institutionalized 501c3 nonprofit and again if you want to know more about this you can check out this video here the church is not a building it's not an institution it's a living breathing community of Believers in 1 Peter 2:5 we're described as living stones being built into a spiritual house when we gather for the Lord's Supper it is a vivid expression of that truth each believer a unique and integral part of the body of Christ comes together to remember Proclaim Jesus's death mutually love and build one another up and express the coming of

[16:51] Christ in the future it should transcend the confines of traditional structures and should emphasize our direct personal connection with Christ himself and and with one another at its heart it's a powerful moment where the essence of the church as God's people is fully realized United not by organizational ties or because we're all on the same denominational team but because of our shared faith and the work of the Holy Spirit Among Us in all honesty there's more of what the Bible means by the Lord's Supper in our community potlucks than there is in our communion services and the Eucharist if I'm being honest my most recent experiences with what might be called a Lord's Supper of this kind created a forward-looking Kingdom oriented view of both the Lord's supper and the church the Lord's Supper isn't just about looking back on Christ sacrifice it absolutely is but it's also about looking forward to his return and

[17:39] the Fulfillment of the kingdom of God as anticipated in Revelation 21 where it says I heard a loud voice from the throne saying Behold The Dwelling Place of God is with man God himself will be with them and be their God and they will be his people the best meals shared with Believers have come for me to feel like a collective anticipation of of a time when not only sin Brokenness death and evil but all of our petty bickering in and amongst other denominations and all of our tribalism and all of our misconceptions about what it means to be a part of God's kingdom are all going to fade away and God's people are going to dwell in perfect unity and fellowship with him and with each other and each time we partake in the Lord's Supper it's an opportunity to reaffirm that hope and to remind ourselves that our ultimate Allegiance isn't to a nonprofit or to a pastor or to a religious ritual

[18:27] but to the coming Kingdom of God where Christ Reigns Supreme and his people live in true Eternal Community with him and with one another in unending others focused love and you just don't get that from a cracker and a little thimble full of grape juice and in the words of Jesus in Luke 22: 29:30 I confer on you a kingdom so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and as a Jewish leader once said to Jesus blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God from Luke 14 in Matthew 8 Jesus himself SP spoke of those who will take their places at the feast with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven and all the tribes peoples tongues and nations of the world will be included in Isaiah 25 it says the Lord of hosts will make for All Peoples a feast of rich food a feast of well-aged wine of rich food full of marrow of aged

[19:16] wine well refined he will swallow up death forever and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the Earth for the Lord has spoken so the next time you sit down to a meal with other believers at your table or at another person's table pause and reflect consider the others present consider ways in which you might put them and treat them more importantly than yourself consider ways to love them now the way that a body when it is healthy takes care of itself consider the death of Jesus his body and blood which are broken for you not to cause you to Naval gaze at your own sins but to take away your sins and give you eternal life and an indwelling of the spirit of Christ consider In This Moment that you are enjoying a foretaste of an eternal meal at God's table and recognize that when we do so not only

[20:04] are we making a powerful proclamation of Christ's death to the world around us and to the evil Powers watching what we're doing as his followers we're enjoying something like a little Slice of Heaven on Earth