What are we doing here? 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
I want to begin this morning by asking you what I think would have to be the most fundamental of all the questions that we could possibly ask at this particular time and in this particular place, namely, “What are we doing here?” Why have we gathered together in this place, this morning? If we had the time for an open discussion, I’m sure that we would discover that a broad array of factors contributed to our presence here:
–I wanted to see my friends.
–I wanted to hear the sermon.
–I enjoy singing the songs.
–I sense God’s presence in this place.
–I like the free coffee.
–Or maybe it was as simple as: it’s Sunday morning and I always go to church on Sunday morning.
I’m sure that each of those and many other factors contributed to our being here this morning. So, now that we’re here what is it primarily and most essentially that we do here? The answer is…WORSHIP. Lots of things will happen here over the course of this morning and hopefully most of them will be good things. But only one of those things is the most important thing. The most important thing that we do here this morning is worship. We have gathered together, first and foremost, to worship our God.
We’ve come together to declare God’s worth. That’s the bare bones, stripped down to its essence meaning of “worship.” When Christians gather together for worship, we do so for the purpose of affirming and declaring the supreme worth of our God. Christian worship is both a personal and a corporate affirmation of our unwavering conviction that God Himself is the greatest treasure of life and that we have reserved and secured for Him the unrivaled first place in our life. In worship we declare that every other value in our life is at best second to the incomparable treasure that we have found in God.
If that declaration is not made in the “worship service,” then we have not worshiped.
–We may have sung some songs but worship is not singing songs.
–We may have enjoyed some time with our friends but worship is not getting together with our friends.
–We may have heard a good sermon but worship is not listening to a good sermon.
Worship is the affirmation and declaration of the unrivaled treasure that we have found in God. The songs, the fellowship and the sermons are only valuable in worship if they help us recognize and declare the supreme worth of God. If they stop doing that then we should stop doing them! Everything in the worship service is there for one primary purpose: to help us recognize and declare that God is higher, greater, more valuable and above all else.
All of which leads me to the primary question that I want us to consider, this morning, namely, Why do we include the Lord’s Supper within our time of worship? And the answer is: Because it helps us affirm and declare the unrivaled treasure that we have found in God. And I want us to spend the rest of our time together, this morning, talking about how it does that.
Let’s begin, by reading a very familiar passage of scripture from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. A passage that speaks directly to the meaning of The Lord’s Supper. In 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 Paul writes this:
(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.
Now, the first thing that I want us to notice, here, is that while The Lord’s Supper is incredibly significant, the supper itself is incredibly simple—it’s bread and it’s wine. That’s it. The supper itself is incredibly simple.
And so, too, are Jesus’ instructions about how to do the supper.
–He doesn’t tell us how to set the table.
–He doesn’t tell us what kind of table we should use.
–He doesn’t tell us about the kind of plates and cups we should use.
–He doesn’t give us a recipe for the bread or the wine.
–He doesn’t tell us how large the servings should be.
–He doesn’t tell us who should sit next to whom at the table.
–He doesn’t tell us what time the supper should start or how long it should last.
In fact, he doesn’t give us any of the kind of details that we typically want to know when we plan a supper. Instead, here’s Jesus’ simple instruction about the supper—“When you eat the supper remember me. Eat the bread ‘in remembrance of me.’ Drink the wine ‘in remembrance of me.’”
And, folks, when we do that…when we pause to fix our eyes and focus our attention on Jesus and remember:
–the unmatched treasure that we have in Christ who died to save us from our sins and into righteousness;
–the unmatched treasure that we have in Christ who died to secure our eternal life;
–the unmatched treasure that we have in our precious Lord Jesus…that’s the heart of worship.
And let’s be real clear about this…we need this reminder. This is not a meaningless religious task to check off our spiritual “to do” list. We’ve gathered at the Lord’s Table many times before and we will continue to gather here regularly because each and every one of us needs this reminder regularly. We need this reminder because we are, each and every one of us, so prone to fix our eyes and focus our attention on lesser things, to the point that we lose sight of the greatest of all things. The Lord’s Supper calls us remember that there is no greater thing than the unmatched treasure that we have in Christ. And, folks, that’s the heart of worship.
But the Supper is more than just remembering. It’s also proclaiming. We see that in verse 26 which says, For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. So the Supper is both a remembering and a proclaiming. Now, those two things can happen at the very same time but it’s important for us to recognize that they are, in fact, two distinct things. So, let’s talk for a few moments about the relationship between remembering and proclaiming. In essence, it works like this: each time I come to the Lord’s Table the remembering is about me but the proclaiming is about you.
–The remembering that I do at The Lord’s Table calls me to remind myself of the treasure that I have in Christ, recognizing that I am prone to fix my eyes and focus my attention on lesser things, to the point of losing sight of Jesus, the greatest of all things.
–And while the relationship I have with Jesus is a very personal and intimate relationship, it’s not an isolating relationship. In fact, just the opposite is true. It’s a connecting relationship. The relationship that I have with Jesus draws me into a vital and loving relationship with the body of Christ, His church, and compels me to do everything that I can possibly do to help you grow in your relationship with Jesus. And to that end, each time I come to The Lord’s Table I am proclaiming that Jesus died for you because I want to remind you of the treasure that you have in Christ, because I know that…just like me…you’re also prone to fix your eyes and focus your attention on lesser things, to the point that of losing sight of Jesus, the greatest of all things.
And let’s be real clear about this…we need to hear this proclamation from each other. We need this proclamation because the responsibilities, the routines and the temptations that we face Monday through Saturday are very distracting and very demanding. And if we’re not constantly on guard we will inevitably find that at some point during the week we stopped focusing on Jesus and are now giving the best of our attention to lesser things.
So, that’s why The Supper matters and that’s why we do it here in worship.
As each of us comes to eat the bread and drink the cup we remind ourselves to keep our own eyes fixed on Jesus, the greatest treasure in our life. And that’s worship.
And as we eat the bread and drink the cup together we encourage each other to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus because He’s also the greatest treasure in your life. And that, too, is worship.
