1Cor 11:23 | KingComments | STEP | The impressive thing of these verses lies in the contrast with the previous verses. There the chaotic situation of the Corinthians is pictured, as it became apparent when they celebrated the Lord’s Supper. It was a just a mess. They dealt in a very unholy way with holy things. How do you respond to that? Does Paul put the church at Corinth aside? No, first he points out the wrong and then he tells them what the real and special meaning of the Lord’s Supper is. It is significant that Paul could address the Corinthians in that way. So the situation was not totally hopeless. They could still be corrected and restoration was still possible. That is different from nowadays Christianity. Due to human institutions that have slipped into many churches and groups, it is not possible anymore to celebrate the Lord’s Supper according to how the Lord Jesus introduced it in the last night of His life on earth before the cross. The whole ecclesiastical structure should be abandoned to have room for what Paul says here in all simplicity and in a very moving way. . Paul takes you to “the night in which He [the Lord Jesus] was betrayed”. That is the moment in the life of the Lord that He certainly had the right to be occupied with Himself and with everything that awaited Him. That was the moment when Judas, one of His disciples, betrayed Him with a kiss. It was right before that moment that the Lord Jesus introduced His Supper with a view for His disciples to remember Him when He would not be on earth anymore. Paul had directly “received from the Lord” because the Lord’s Supper fits totally in his ministry. After all, Paul is the man who is used by the Lord to make everything known about the church, which is originated through the death, the resurrection and the glorification of the Lord Jesus. In his conversion he was already given to understand that the church on the earth and the Lord Jesus in heaven are one. When he persecuted the church he heard from heaven: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” ( ). That Paul is exactly the one who receives the order to pass on this institution, proves that the Lord’s Supper is a part of the Christian’s life, thus also yours. It is a remembrance meal whereby you always remember a Savior Who was willing to die for you and all people who have accepted Him in faith. If you ponder on the Lord’s Supper, do you then realize that His lips asked: “Do this in remembrance of Me”? Therefore the Lord Jesus took bread while celebrating the Passover. The Passover, which He was celebrating with His disciples, was a remembrance of the deliverance of Israel from Egypt. The institution of the Passover is described in Exodus 12 ( ). But what the Lord Jesus instituted during the celebration of the Passover is not related to Israel in the first place, but to the church. As long as the church dwells on earth, she can express her intimate and indissoluble alliance with the Lord Jesus through the celebration of His Supper. When you join a gathering where the Lord’s Supper is celebrated, your heart will be filled with a great gratitude. The Lord Jesus took bread. It says it so simply. Yet it is so exceptional. The exceptional thing about it is not the bread. The bread is just plain bread. It does not go through an uncommon change by pronouncing an extraordinary prayer of blessing, as the roman-catholic church teaches. It remains plain bread. The exceptional thing about it is what the bread represents. You can compare it to a photo of someone who you love very much. The material of the photo is plain paper. The point is who is on that photo. If someone spat on that photo, you would be very offended, not because of the paper, but because of their contempt for the person who is on the photo. It is the same idea with the bread during the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. The Lord Jesus said about the bread: “This is My body, which is for you.” It is an awful thing to deal with that inappropriately. . When you join the gathering and you see the bread, you can remember that the Lord Jesus, the eternal Son, has become Man and has taken on a body, without ever giving it up again. In that body he lived thirty-three years on earth. In His body He has glorified God in a perfect way. In that body He suffered as well. Try to realize: He became captured, while He could call twelve legions of angels with one sigh to heaven to consume all ( ). Such capture did not happen gently at all. Evil people laid their violent hands upon His holy body and hauled Him before the courts. In spite of the declaration that had to be given again and again, that He hadn’t done anything for which He should be punished, they spat in His holy face, tore His clothes off from His body and tore His holy back open by scourging Him terribly. Beaten up like that, He had to walk with the cross on His back to the place of execution. At that place brutal hands of soldiers grabbed His holy hands, with which He did nothing but bless, and hurried to hit them cruelly with nails on the cross. Then they raised the cross. The Savior was hanging there on the cross! He was mocked and provoked to come down from the cross. Still He remained hanging on the cross. Imagine what would have happened if He had come down from the cross. Then you and I would have been perished forever. His love for you and me kept Him on that cross, yet the worst still had to happen. The suffering He underwent till then was done to Him by people. That suffering could not take away sins. It just only increased the guilt of man. What still had to happen and the only thing through which we could be redeemed from our sins, was that He would bear “our sins in His body” on the cross ( ). In the three hours of darkness His holy body was burdened with our sins and was struck by God. This is how He died. It is poignant to be continually aware of that, when you see the broken bread before you. . Also the cup represents something. It represents the blood of the Lord Jesus, which He shed. The blood is of such great value, that God can therefore forgive sins. That forgiveness is a great thing, something you can be amazed of again and again and for which you can express your gratitude toward God again and again. How often would you like to celebrate the Lord’s Supper? It is written: “As often as.” From the beginning of Acts you can understand that the first Christians daily came together to celebrate the Lord’s Supper. Further on in Acts the first day of the week is mentioned as a day on which the bread was broken ( ). This first day of the week is called in Revelation 1 “the Lord’s day” ( ). Do you remember that the Supper is called “the Lord’s Supper” in ? So there is a clear connection between ‘the Lord’s day’ and ‘the Lord’s Supper’. Therefore the first day of the week seems to be the most suitable day to celebrate it. Another indication is that the Lord Jesus came on that day, the first day of the week, after His resurrection in the midst of His disciples ( ). On that day He likes to meet with His own, so that they may worship Him. Is there a more suitable way than through the celebration of that remembrance meal? . Therefore when you eat the bread and drink from the cup, you proclaim “the Lord’s death”. Can you imagine two words that are so contradictory and yet are made so closely related here than ‘death’ and ‘Lord’? Yet your hopeless situation cannot be put forward in a more striking way. To save you required no less than the death of the Prince of life. Therefore you say, though without words, so much when you partake of the Lord’s Supper. It is a proclamation to whoever wants to see it, whether it is people or angels, that you owe everything to a Lord Who died. When that is a reality for you, then the result will be that you will not allow anything anymore in your life the Lord had to die for. That should be really out of the question. By impressing upon them the amazing thing about the Lord’s death again, Paul wanted to persuade the Corinthians to confess their wrong practices and to put them away. Isn’t that a wonderful way to get believers on the right track? We must realize that every time we have proclaimed the death of the Lord, it could have been the last time. With the celebration of the Lord’s Supper we remember His death, while we know that He lives. For we proclaim His death “until He comes”. What an amazing prospect! Now read 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 again. Reflection: What does the Lord’s Supper represent?

‏ 1 Corinthians 11:23

The Lord’s Supper

The impressive thing of these verses lies in the contrast with the previous verses. There the chaotic situation of the Corinthians is pictured, as it became apparent when they celebrated the Lord’s Supper. It was a just a mess. They dealt in a very unholy way with holy things. How do you respond to that? Does Paul put the church at Corinth aside? No, first he points out the wrong and then he tells them what the real and special meaning of the Lord’s Supper is.

It is significant that Paul could address the Corinthians in that way. So the situation was not totally hopeless. They could still be corrected and restoration was still possible. That is different from nowadays Christianity. Due to human institutions that have slipped into many churches and groups, it is not possible anymore to celebrate the Lord’s Supper according to how the Lord Jesus introduced it in the last night of His life on earth before the cross. The whole ecclesiastical structure should be abandoned to have room for what Paul says here in all simplicity and in a very moving way.

1Cor 11:23. Paul takes you to “the night in which He [the Lord Jesus] was betrayed”. That is the moment in the life of the Lord that He certainly had the right to be occupied with Himself and with everything that awaited Him. That was the moment when Judas, one of His disciples, betrayed Him with a kiss. It was right before that moment that the Lord Jesus introduced His Supper with a view for His disciples to remember Him when He would not be on earth anymore.

Paul had directly “received from the Lord” because the Lord’s Supper fits totally in his ministry. After all, Paul is the man who is used by the Lord to make everything known about the church, which is originated through the death, the resurrection and the glorification of the Lord Jesus. In his conversion he was already given to understand that the church on the earth and the Lord Jesus in heaven are one. When he persecuted the church he heard from heaven: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” (Acts 9:4).

That Paul is exactly the one who receives the order to pass on this institution, proves that the Lord’s Supper is a part of the Christian’s life, thus also yours. It is a remembrance meal whereby you always remember a Savior Who was willing to die for you and all people who have accepted Him in faith.

If you ponder on the Lord’s Supper, do you then realize that His lips asked: “Do this in remembrance of Me”? Therefore the Lord Jesus took bread while celebrating the Passover. The Passover, which He was celebrating with His disciples, was a remembrance of the deliverance of Israel from Egypt. The institution of the Passover is described in Exodus 12 (Exo 12:1-14). But what the Lord Jesus instituted during the celebration of the Passover is not related to Israel in the first place, but to the church. As long as the church dwells on earth, she can express her intimate and indissoluble alliance with the Lord Jesus through the celebration of His Supper. When you join a gathering where the Lord’s Supper is celebrated, your heart will be filled with a great gratitude.

The Lord Jesus took bread. It says it so simply. Yet it is so exceptional. The exceptional thing about it is not the bread. The bread is just plain bread. It does not go through an uncommon change by pronouncing an extraordinary prayer of blessing, as the roman-catholic church teaches. It remains plain bread. The exceptional thing about it is what the bread represents.

You can compare it to a photo of someone who you love very much. The material of the photo is plain paper. The point is who is on that photo. If someone spat on that photo, you would be very offended, not because of the paper, but because of their contempt for the person who is on the photo. It is the same idea with the bread during the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. The Lord Jesus said about the bread: “This is My body, which is for you.” It is an awful thing to deal with that inappropriately.

1Cor 11:24. When you join the gathering and you see the bread, you can remember that the Lord Jesus, the eternal Son, has become Man and has taken on a body, without ever giving it up again. In that body he lived thirty-three years on earth. In His body He has glorified God in a perfect way. In that body He suffered as well.

Try to realize: He became captured, while He could call twelve legions of angels with one sigh to heaven to consume all (Mt 26:53). Such capture did not happen gently at all. Evil people laid their violent hands upon His holy body and hauled Him before the courts. In spite of the declaration that had to be given again and again, that He hadn’t done anything for which He should be punished, they spat in His holy face, tore His clothes off from His body and tore His holy back open by scourging Him terribly.

Beaten up like that, He had to walk with the cross on His back to the place of execution. At that place brutal hands of soldiers grabbed His holy hands, with which He did nothing but bless, and hurried to hit them cruelly with nails on the cross.

Then they raised the cross. The Savior was hanging there on the cross! He was mocked and provoked to come down from the cross. Still He remained hanging on the cross. Imagine what would have happened if He had come down from the cross. Then you and I would have been perished forever. His love for you and me kept Him on that cross, yet the worst still had to happen.

The suffering He underwent till then was done to Him by people. That suffering could not take away sins. It just only increased the guilt of man. What still had to happen and the only thing through which we could be redeemed from our sins, was that He would bear “our sins in His body” on the cross (1Pet 2:24). In the three hours of darkness His holy body was burdened with our sins and was struck by God. This is how He died. It is poignant to be continually aware of that, when you see the broken bread before you.

1Cor 11:25. Also the cup represents something. It represents the blood of the Lord Jesus, which He shed. The blood is of such great value, that God can therefore forgive sins. That forgiveness is a great thing, something you can be amazed of again and again and for which you can express your gratitude toward God again and again.

How often would you like to celebrate the Lord’s Supper? It is written: “As often as.” From the beginning of Acts you can understand that the first Christians daily came together to celebrate the Lord’s Supper. Further on in Acts the first day of the week is mentioned as a day on which the bread was broken (Acts 20:7). This first day of the week is called in Revelation 1 “the Lord’s day” (Rev 1:10). Do you remember that the Supper is called “the Lord’s Supper” in 1Cor 11:20? So there is a clear connection between ‘the Lord’s day’ and ‘the Lord’s Supper’. Therefore the first day of the week seems to be the most suitable day to celebrate it.

Another indication is that the Lord Jesus came on that day, the first day of the week, after His resurrection in the midst of His disciples (Jn 20:19 ; 26). On that day He likes to meet with His own, so that they may worship Him. Is there a more suitable way than through the celebration of that remembrance meal?

1Cor 11:26. Therefore when you eat the bread and drink from the cup, you proclaim “the Lord’s death”. Can you imagine two words that are so contradictory and yet are made so closely related here than ‘death’ and ‘Lord’? Yet your hopeless situation cannot be put forward in a more striking way. To save you required no less than the death of the Prince of life.

Therefore you say, though without words, so much when you partake of the Lord’s Supper. It is a proclamation to whoever wants to see it, whether it is people or angels, that you owe everything to a Lord Who died. When that is a reality for you, then the result will be that you will not allow anything anymore in your life the Lord had to die for. That should be really out of the question.

By impressing upon them the amazing thing about the Lord’s death again, Paul wanted to persuade the Corinthians to confess their wrong practices and to put them away. Isn’t that a wonderful way to get believers on the right track?

We must realize that every time we have proclaimed the death of the Lord, it could have been the last time. With the celebration of the Lord’s Supper we remember His death, while we know that He lives. For we proclaim His death “until He comes”. What an amazing prospect!

Now read 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 again.

Reflection: What does the Lord’s Supper represent?