1 Corinthians 11:23 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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1 Corinthians 11:23

Comments

In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, we find how the Lord himself inaugurated the Lord’s Supper. The first Lord’s Supper, that Passover meal that was turned into the Lord’s Supper by Christ, was attended by the apostles, and they recorded it. But note that it was especially and separately given to the apostle Paul too, by special inspiration. He was not there when Christ inaugurated the Lord’s Supper. Paul was the apostle born out of due time – so it comes from the apostles – but he also had it especially revealed to him by revelation, and his instructions, his revelation, were exactly the same as what the other apostles had received from Christ in the flesh.So he goes on to instruction on the Lord’s Supper, and it is so beautiful. It is often said today that this is the first account in Scripture of the Lord’s Supper. The Lord’s Supper is a true ordinance. Ordinances referred to earlier in the chapter are traditions, the instructions of the apostles. But this, the Lord’s Supper, is a true ordinance, ordained by Christ, like baptism. We have only two ordinances – things that we must physically do, with symbols – that were literally ordained by Christ, and this is one of themHe had taught them about it on first coming to Corinth; and they have neglected that instruction. The very same night that Christ was betrayed, even as Judas had gone to betray him, and as Satan was planning his end – of course it was the will of the Godhead that he should be delivered up, but as these vile things were taking place – Christ inaugurated the Lord’s Supper concerning his death. They were thinking of his death, those who were working against him, but he was thinking of his disciples throughout all ages.

Application

He suffered for a vast number of people, beyond our minds to grasp: millions and millions of people in the history of the world who would be saved. He suffered for them all. Isaiah tells us he could see them all as he suffered in his mind’s eye. He knew everyone for whom he bore the terrible burden of punishment, the eternal punishment of sin, and in seeing us, he did it out of love for us. What bore him up as he suffered the excruciating pain and consequences of sin – to be suffered throughout eternity by millions – was his divinity, and in particular his love for the people for whom he died. We think of that as we eat a small piece of bread. This represents my interest and participation in the suffering and death of Christ. He felt for me. He knew my punishment and my pain; his body was broken, tortured, for me. Not only his body but think how much we must have suffered in his holy soul. The experience of separation from the Father, for me, my separation and punishment. He secured mercy for me. I eat to remember that his body acted for me. I must thank him for that, I must yield myself up entirely to him. It is the Lord's Supper.

Perhaps I've been lazy in this proceeding, and careless and cold. I am melted with shame that he should do all this for me, and I should reward him so poorly. I yield myself to him. I review my life. I confess my sin. I thank him and give myself to him. Do we do all that? That is the Lord’s Supper. Perhaps you don't even come and you are a Christian; you treat it as lightly as the Corinthians. ‘No, we want a wedding feast, not a Lord’s Supper, not something deeply thoughtful. We do not want something that will move us to tears, so that we yield afresh to him, and re-commit to him and to each other.

Don't forget, I symbolically ingest his body. Do you think about that? I have an interest in his body. I now eat it and ingest it. Isn't that a reminder to me that I have Christ in me, the hope of glory? I have Christ by his Spirit dwelling in me. I not only have an interest in his body, but in conversion it is as if I have ingested his body. I have had the likeness of Christ, planted in me. I am a changed person, and that eating of the symbolic body of Christ reminds me it is something that has entered into me. Do I suppress it, or do I daily thank him, and seek to be more like him with the help of God? Now I am a different person. Sin is still there, but it is my enemy, not my friend. I have a living conscience and my consciences is moved when I sin. Is the likeness of Christ in me? Do I love people or hate them? Do I have joy and peace and forbearance and long-suffering? It is very convicting.

Questions

Some people say, ‘Oh it was at night, therefore the Lord’s Supper should be held at night, and we will only have it in the evening.’ Is that right? No, as Calvin said so long ago, that is to trivialise the Scripture. The Lord Jesus didn't hold the Lord’s Supper at night so that all his followers should hold it at night. He held it at night for a much bigger reason: not to be normative in ‘when’, but because it was his last encounter with the disciples before his arrest. The inauguration of the Lord’s Supper was done at the last opportunity for them to have supper together.

We may find in churches that are small enough to do it, one loaf is used for the Lord’s Supper, because when the Lord inaugurated the supper there was one loaf, and it was broken and distributed. In larger churches with the passing of time, we have inherited a loaf already broken, already separated into pieces and small cups rather than the one shared cup. Does it make any difference? No, because this is symbolism, and we know that a piece of bread comes from a loaf. Nobody ever thought that a small piece of bread somehow was made by itself, and is an individual thing. Even if served as a small piece of bread, it quite adequately symbolises the one body of Christ, which is distributed as a symbol to us.

It is often said today that because 1 Corinthians was written before any of the Gospels this actually is the first account. Frankly – but this is just a personal view – I doubt that; I doubt that Gospels, or parts of them, were never written down before the apostle Paul issued 1 Corinthians. I think there were Gospel records in writing far earlier than the so-called experts suggest.

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Purpose

Introduction

1 Corinthians 11:23 Commentary and Bible Study