It’s Communion Sunday. Today, we talked about our love as a response to God’s love. As it says in 1 John 4–
1 John 4
10 This is love: NOT that we loved God, but that HE loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
How meaningful it is to begin the new year remembering the greatest expression of God’s love for us. God sent His only Son. Jesus came into the world to save us from our sins. He laid down him life for us on the cross. He died and took our place so that we can live.
Please turn with me to 1 Corinthians 11.
1 Cor 11
23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night 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, 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.” 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
I want to start by giving several reasons why the phrase, “this is my body” does not mean Jesus’ physical body materializes in the bread. Then, I will give several positive meanings of “This is my body” and “This is my blood.”
To start with, why doesn’t, “This is my body” mean, this bread has become the physical, material, incarnate body of Jesus?
First reason – representation. When we show someone a picture of our family and say, “This is my family.” They know we don’t mean that this picture has mystically or physically turned into my family. Or when we point to an actor in the movie, Lincoln, and say, “That’s Abraham Lincoln,” we know this is just an actor representing Abraham Lincoln. Or when we read the Chronicles of Narnia and point to Aslan and say, “That’s Jesus Christ.” The lion is not equivalent to Jesus. The lion represents Jesus.
Those things represent something else. This represents my body. It’s very telling that in the modern Catholic Catechism the word “represents” is used but it is usually hyphenated: re-presents. The implication seems to be: there is a real physical re-presenting of Christ in the communion. His physical body is presented again. I think that is an unnatural way of reading this verse.
Second, there is a parallelism between the bread and body as well as the cup and the new covenant. If the words, “This [bread] is my body” was intended to mean, “This [bread] has turned into my physical body,” then we would expect the same meaning to hold for the statement about the cup. In verse 25 he says, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.” Here the words “This cup is the new covenant” are not forced to mean: The cup has turned into a covenant.
Everyone agrees that the cup represents its contents, the cup points to the blessings given to the recipients of this new covenant. And the blood shed by Jesus secures or purchases or guarantees the blessings of the covenant for the recipients. So if we are willing to let “This cup is the new covenant” mean something more natural than “This cup has turned into the new covenant,” we should be willing to let “This bread is my body” mean something more natural than “This bread has turned into my body.”
Third, Jesus himself explains that he is speaking figuratively, not literally in John 6. Please turn with me to John 6.
Starting in v48, Jesus foreshadows the meaning of the Lord’s Supper and says publicly in the synagogue (v. 48), “I am the bread of life.” Then he goes on to talk about the eating of this bread. He says in verse 51–
John 6
51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
Is this cannibalism? This sounds shocking and the Jews question how he might give them his flesh to eat (v52). Jesus responds in v53–
John 6
53 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.”
Then he realizes that his own disciples were confused about what he was saying. v60–
John 6
60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”
So Jesus says to them the key interpreting word in verse 63 to help them avoid the very mistake that the synagogue was making.
John 6
63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.
I take this to mean: Don’t get hung up on my references to my flesh being eaten and my blood being drunk. I am speaking figuratively. I am referring to a spiritual action, not a physical one.
Fourth, Jesus says that eating and drinking are spiritual acts.
John 6:35 points us to the positive meaning of eating and drinking Christ.
John 6
35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”
Here, he gives himself to us to be received by eating and drinking. Hunger and thirst will be quenched by Christ. And what is this eating and drinking? It is coming and believing. He who COMES to me will never go hungry, and he who BELIEVES in me will never be thirsty. In other words, the eating and drinking refer to spiritual acts of the soul drawing near to Christ, and receiving him, and trusting him, and having the hunger and thirst of our souls satisfied in Christ.
So if the words, “This is my body,” does not mean, “the physical body of Jesus materializes in this bread,” what then is the positive meaning of “This is my body” and “This is my blood”?
Here are three things the words mean.
First, the words mean proclamation.
If you flip back to 1 Cor 11, v26 reads–
1 Cor 11
26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
“This is my body” means: by this representation of my broken body, you proclaim my death for sinners until I come. You proclaim the gospel. The bread and cup proclaim the saving death AND resurrection of Christ because “until he comes” implies the resurrection.
Second, the words mean remembrance.
1 Cor 11:24-25 – Jesus says, “do this in remembrance of me.” “This is my body” means: Let this representation of my body and blood remind you of me. First, the death of Christ is proclaimed. And second, by this proclamation we are reminded of Christ. Remember me, Jesus says, sitting with you in fellowship. Remember me being betrayed. Remember me giving thanks to the God who ordained all things. Remember me breaking the bread just as I willingly gave my own body to be broken. Remember me shedding my blood for you so that you might live because I died. Remember me suffering to obtain for you all the blessings of the new covenant. Let the memories of me, in all the fullness of my love and power, flood your soul at this table. Which leads to the third and final meaning of the words, “This is my body.”
Third, faith enables us to feast.
John 6
35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”
“This is my body,” means, as you eat this bread and drink this cup, come to me and believe in me. That is, by faith, sit with me at the table and trust me to be your life-sustaining food and drink. By faith, let the proclamation of my death and remembrance of all that I am draw you into deeper communion with me. “This is my body,” and “This is my blood,” means come and eat spiritually. That is, feed your soul on all that I am for you. Nourish your heart on all the blessings that I bought for you with my body and blood. How do we come? By faith. Faith is being satisfied in all that God is for us in Christ. Christ has given us the Lord’s Supper to feed us spiritually with himself.
So, even though I think it is wrong to say that the bread and the blood turn into the actual physical, incarnate body of Jesus, nevertheless, I am not saying that what happens in the Lord’s Supper is a mere recalling of facts. The Lord’s Supper proclaims. And faith comes by hearing and seeing and tasting that proclamation. And faith is the means by which we enjoy a spiritual feasting on the risen, living Christ so that all that God is for us in him satisfies our soul, and sweetens our love for him, and breaks the power of sin in our lives.
I pray that our appreciation for Christ’s sacrifice deepens as we plumb the depths of its rich meaning in 2013.
I am going to ask Brother Jae and Brother Matthew to come forward and stand facing the congregation. As you come forward to partake in the Lord’s Supper, the 3 of us are going to pray for you silently because it is our commitment as elders to serve you and to lead this congregation first and foremost through the teaching of the Word and through prayer.
We are going to ask you to come forward twice. First, I will invite you to come forward to receive the bread and you are free to take it whenever you are finished praying on your own. This is to stress the individual aspect of the Lord’s Supper. Christ died for you. Second, I will ask you to come forward a second time to receive the cup and this time, I ask that you wait until everyone has been served and we will take the cup altogether. This is to stress the corporate aspect of the Lord’s Supper. Christ died for us, His body.
Before we partake in the Lord’s Supper, Paul advises us to examine our hearts.
28 A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup.
We can’t partake without first examining our hearts. If there is unconfessed sin in your heart, I ask you to refrain from partaking.
Christians are all welcome to come forward. If you are not a committed member of a church, however, I would encourage you to commit here or somewhere else. Otherwise, you will not get the full impact of what the Lord’s Supper represents. Because we are gathered as believers who represent the body of Christ. And our participation in the body is demonstrated by our commitment to a local body of brothers and sisters. If you don’t yet believe in Jesus as your personal Savior and Lord, I would ask you to refrain from partaking in Communion because this ordinance has no meaning for you.
Let me read starting from the second half of v23 —
The Lord Jesus, on the night 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.”
Let’s spend some time in prayer – about 1-2 minutes. When you have finished praying, come forward and take the bread back to your seat. And when you are ready, please take it individually as a symbol of Christ’s forgiveness given to you personally.
You can come forward using either aisle. Let’s pray.
If you haven’t come forward to take the bread already, please come forward at this time. [TAKE BREAD]
Now is the time we invite you to come forward for the cup. This time, I ask everyone to take the cup and wait at their seat until everyone has been served. Then, as a symbol of our corporate unity, we will take it together so please hold on to the cup and wait for everyone to be served. You may come forward. [TAKE CUP]
25 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.”
You may take the cup. Closing prayer.