It is a special occasion when we set aside a service and devote it, everything about it, its songs, its prayers, its message to this particular ordinance of the Lord's Supper. Indeed, there's probably no greater expression concerning the doctrine of our salvation than to pause here this morning around the table of the Lord. What I would like to do is to read a couple of brief portions out of 1 Corinthians. Chapter 10 is the first one, and then chapter 11, as we're all very familiar with these. And as we consider them, I will comment on a few key words that we'll point out throughout our reading. There are several references made to this particular event in the writings of 1 Corinthians. We have three different phrases or titles that describe what we're here to do. It is called the Lord's Table, it is called the Lord's Supper, and it's also referred to as the communion that takes place at this particular moment. So, these are very important words that we want to look at and evaluate. But let's read the text first, beginning in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verses 15 through 17. Paul writes, And I speak as to wise men. Judge, consider what I say. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread and one body, for we are all partakers of that one bread. And then look over at 1 Corinthians chapter 11, beginning in verse 17. Now, in this that I declare unto you, I praise you not, that when you come together, it is not for the better, but for the worse. You're churching together, you come together, you assemble. For first of all, when you come together in the church as an assembly, he's speaking of their gathering for the purpose of worship. I hear that there be divisions among you. And painfully so, he says, I partly believe it's true, what I'm hearing. And these things occur that there must be also heresies among you, that they which are proved may be made manifest among you. When you come together as a church, therefore, into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper. For in the eating, everyone taketh before after his own supper, and one is hungry, another is drunken. What is this? What is this? Have you not houses to eat and to drink in, or despise you the church of God and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not. For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he breaketh and said, Take, eat. This is my body which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me. And after the same manner also he took the cup. And when he had supped, saying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood. This do ye, as oft as you drink it, in remembrance of me. For as oft as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death till he come. Wherefore, whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation, judgment to themselves, not having discerned the Lord's body. When we think of these words that show up here in chapter 10 and then again in chapter number 11, when you hear the word communion, which is a phrase that is commonly used to describe the communion service, we are referring to what takes place when we participate. It's an actual thing that occurs, communion. It is the koinonia, the fellowshipping, the participating that occurs between the individual and the Redeemer. There is a communion that is taking place in this service through these elements. And there's also, as Paul said, a communion taking place between everyone who's participating together. It's a special kind of communion. It is not only vertical, but it is horizontal. And for that reason, Paul stresses, to have divisions in the church and sit at the table is contradictory. If you're not in communion with one another, you don't participate at the table. He uses the word frequently here, the Lord's, that plural, possessive statement of who it belongs to. It's the Lord's table. It's the Lord's supper. It's His service. He is the, as the word kurios denotes, He is the owner who is supreme. This is His table. And He alone as the Lord of heaven and earth defines the meaning and sets the parameters of what it means and how the manner of our participation that becomes very clear in chapters 10 and 11. Because it is the Lord's, He lifts this service above all other earthly events and makes it a special service. There's no other meal that you will ever eat in a lifetime that you can say is the Lord's table. There's one. We give thanks for food that we eat for sure, but there's only one table or supper that is declared to be the Lord's and you are gathered today to participate in that. It's a special service. And because it's the Lord's service, only those who have placed themselves under the rule of this Lord are invited and welcomed guests to His table. You must have declared that Jesus Christ is your Lord. He is the Lord of your life. And you followed Him in the first requirement of obedience to the gospel by repentance and belief and obedience to baptism. And we look forward in a couple of weeks to participate in that ordinance again as God has provided us with that opportunity. But here, looking back at chapter 10, we read just a moment ago in these verses here, Paul is mentioning that we drank the cup of the blessing which we bless in verse number 16. And here's that familiar word that we've heard both when Paul writes his letters, he opens with a eulogy. Peter opened with a eulogy in his letter in verses 3, 4, and 5. This is that same word. And you've heard it enough, defined and explained frequently. I'm sure you understand what it means when he says, the cup of blessing which we bless. He is referring to the idea here, the blessing is not a verb here. Again, it's a noun, that feminine gender. So he's talking about something, benefits, ideas, concepts that are all wonderful benefits that his blood has accomplished for us. When we drink the cup, we are contemplating the richness of what he has achieved through his blood. And so he says, the blessings which we bless. We are able to concentrate, we are able to acknowledge and consider the infinite blessings that he has achieved for us, and we bless him for those blessings. And so bless that follows here is the verb. This is now us actively speaking good words to him, telling him how grateful we are for what he has achieved on our behalf. And so all of us are participating in expressing our blessings. This is a personal thing. We bless. We who are participants, we bless. So as we partake in that drinking of that cup in a few moments this morning, it's not just that I may offer a blessing of praise to God, but it is something you ought to be actively engaged in as well. You are blessing God, what he has done for you through his son. You are blessing Christ with the blood that was poured out. And he talks about the drinking of this cup and the eating of this bread here in verse 16 as well. We drink and we eat, and we are participating in communion with our Lord Jesus Christ. There's a mystery here that I don't fully understand. I've preached on it numerous times in my years of ministry, but there's a deep mystery here. It's so deep I've almost chosen to back away and not even try to explain it anymore. Because it is that profound. How do I enter in to communion with his body and his blood? And that's what he is saying here. We bless the cup. Is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? Communion with who? With you. With us. There is a mystery transpiring here between Christ and us that we are identifying in these symbols, these elements that we partake together in. They are symbolic, they're memorial in the sense that we are recognizing what Christ's blood did, but we're also recognizing there is an unusual connection between the believer and the blood of Christ, between the believer and the body of Christ. So when we partake of it, we are entering into a communion, a fellowship, the koinonia as it were, the fellowshipping together around the body and the blood of Christ. There's mysteries in that body and in that blood that I won't even attempt to explain, but I would call you this morning to at least consider when you take that cup and you drink it and you bless, you offer praise and thanksgiving to God for what he has done through his Son, as you bless good words, as you offer those words that you're contemplating the reality that through this moment you are in fellowship with the very person of Jesus Christ, his body and his blood in a very unique way. Not in a Catholic sense where it becomes actual. We're not saying that. There is a mystery here. We often consider the table of the Lord as a means of grace whereby he imparts to his people special blessings from their participation. Again, mysteries for sure, but we ought to be aware what Paul is saying here must not be swept under a rug because it's too complicated or it's too mysterious to the human mind way beyond our capacity to grasp. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? We enter into that in some mysterious way and for that reason we rejoice and we celebrate. We give good words to God as we bless him for the blessings that are contained in that cup that become ours, that have become ours through our Lord Jesus Christ. He gives an argument here for this when he says in verse 17, because we, and he's talking here about the communion that goes on between us and Christ and between us and one another for we being many, we are one bread, one loaf, one body of believers for we are all partakers of that one bread. So here the whole communion goes from a vertical plane to a horizontal plane and that's why it's so important when you come to the table you're at peace with your brethren. There's nothing left unsettled between you. You're right with God. You are right with God. You can't come to the table when you are at odds with each other. That would be a contradiction. That's being hypocritical. So it is important that we recognize that there is something here that is unique in our fellowship and communion with God that we praise him for and there's something very unique in our relationship with one another that we recognize, we identify, and we praise him for as well. Body life, being one body, brought together, made one, God has done that. Chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians, it is God who put the body together and we recognize that. And so we celebrate that, the mystery of the communion this way, the mystery of the communion that God has provided for us. When he brought you into the family, you were not only connected to him, you are now permanently connected to your brethren because you too are partakers of that one bread. In chapter 11, he goes on here, he is developing this theme in verse 17 through 19. He reminds them that this service of gathering together and partaking in the Lord's table, the Lord's Supper, is not to be considered as some kind of common normal service because it's not. They had just attached it. Greek culture, as we understand, the festivals and the feasts were very common to them and it was very natural for them to take the Lord's Day and obviously they had developed some kind of festivities and feasting together and the Lord's Supper was somehow folded into all of that celebration and not everyone who attended had the means to bring food, had the means to share more with others because they didn't even have enough for themselves. And so the whole process was being shamed by the Apostle Paul as something that was inappropriate. And so he is untangling here this idea that every time we gather together and have a meal, we attach or fold into that the Lord's Supper. It's a special service. It has its own unique purpose, and it's not to be made common with other things. And so he is telling them about his concern, his frustration, his disappointment in verses 17, 18, and 19. And then in verses 20 through 22, he explains here when we come together, it is not to eat the Lord's Supper, but then he goes on, explains how they have misused that gathering and turned it into something that it was not meant to be. It's interesting that Paul spends more time on warning us about the misuse of the Lord's Supper in his text than he does on explaining what it means. Considerably more information because of the dangers of coming and participating and not being properly prepared to do so. And that follows toward the end of this portion here. So in verses 23, verse 23, look at this quickly as we just gather up his positive instructions here. Paul says, I have received of the Lord, and here he is stressing the idea that he is not communicating his own ideas. And what's interesting that, you know, 30 years have passed or so, 25 to 30 years since the Last Supper was instituted in the Gospels, and what we have here is Paul is saying, nothing's changed. Nothing's changed. I'm giving you what I received from the Lord. And that's an important thing for us to remember. We don't have to get overly creative with this. It's not meant to be somehow created in a way to inspire different kinds of emotions. It is what it is. It is the table of the Lord that represents his body and his blood. We don't have to try to dramatize it in any particular way. And so Paul says, just as I received it, I'm passing it on. This is the Lord's Supper. It's his. And so in verses 24 through 25, he gives us a very simple memorial service here that we enter into when we celebrate the Lord's table. And so he says that night that he was betrayed, when he had given thanks, that's the Eucharist, that's the expression of our gratitude to God, Christ gave thanks to the Father for what this meal represented. So he found the emblems of his body and his blood were not negative things. They were very positive things to him. What he was about to do, he gave thanks. He praised his Father. And then he took that bread and he broke it and he said to them and to his Father as he's sort of openly telling them how to participate, take and eat, this is my body which is broken for you, this do in remembrance of me. And in the same manner, he took the cup and when he had supped, he said, this cup is the New Testament, the new contract, the new covenant that is now ratified in my blood, this do ye as oft as you drink it in remembrance of me. So it's a memorial service. When Jesus said here, take this bread and this is my body, we have no harmony at all or agreement at all with those who somehow think that when that bread is handed out, it suddenly becomes the body of Christ. That cannibalistic kind of approach to eating his body and drinking his blood is not something that we agree with the Roman Catholic Church nor even with the Lutheran Church as they sort of land halfway in between all of this. Paul is saying something symbolically here, that you are to take this bread, it is representative, eat this bread, it represents my body. Drink this cup of the vine because it is representative of my blood. And so the Lord's supper, it is a special meal for sure. It is a formal meal as he even uses the word supper in verse 20. It refers to coming to a meal appropriately. There's a formality to it that ought to be observed and considered and respected when you come to the table. The Lord's meal, it's a sacred meal. It's not to be treated as something common and ordinary. And here he even adds, it is a memorial meal. We are celebrating, we are invited to come and to participate in a memorial service that considers, ponders, thinks about, celebrates, praises God and praises the Son for what these elements represent to us. And there's only two, it's not a complicated meal. We have two elements, one that represents his body and one that represents his blood. And both are given a symbolic meaning. The bread is his body, the wine is his blood. And the presentation of the bread is simple, the loaf is broken. It is symbolizing his body that was broken, a body that was crushed and bruised, afflicted beneath the weight of God's judgment for our sin. We must see that when we take those pieces that have been broken and we eat them. He bore the penalty as our substitute, his sole experience, separation from his Father for us. We are the ones who deserved the eternal punishment and wrath of God, eternal separation from God. But he bore that in his own body for us. It was broken under the weight of the judgment of God. And so in the Lord's Supper, we remember and we also recognize our union with Christ when he suffered for us. And we eat the broken bread to acknowledge and rejoice in our communion with Christ, past, present, and future. We have a communion with Christ that also connects us to one another in a very special way. And so the same is true when we drink the cup here. We are remembering. We are remembering what his blood accomplished for us. We are now and will forever be in communion with Christ through his blood, which he shed for us. His blood brought us into communion and his blood continues to keep us in communion. As we understand both John and Peter about the washing of the blood of Jesus Christ as an ongoing sanctification, a part of our salvation experience. And so the blood tells us of all of these glorious things. And Paul, like Peter, is not afraid to impose a holy response upon us when we consider these truths about what Christ has accomplished for us. I think he illustrated it very well, spoke it clearly in chapter 6 of 1 Corinthians. You look at this, here is the application of this truth as it's being worked out by the apostle Paul. In chapter 6, verses 19 and 20, he says, what? Again, staggered by the ignorance, the lack of knowledge that is among them. Know you not that your body is, he's speaking personally of your body. Chapter 3, he talks about the body of the church. Here he's talking about your body is also a temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which you have of God and you are not your own. You have been bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which belongs to him. They are God's. God paid a price for us. And we are looking at the cost. What does that mean to you? It means he owns you. You're his. He paid the price for you. What does that mean? You're not your own. You don't have the right to dictate who you are any longer in this life. You belong to him. And your goal, glorify him in your body and in your spirit, which belongs to God. And the wonderful thing about the celebration of these things, we often think they have a very limited impact upon our life as we look into the future and one day we are taken home and all things culminate and a new heaven and a new earth are created again, that somehow these things get lost. But when we go to the book of Revelation, we realize these things do not get lost. In fact, we are reminded that they will be forever in our mind as we go into eternity. We look at Revelation chapter 5 and here we have this scene, what's going on in heaven, this scene of worship that is taking place here in chapters 4 and 5. And in chapter 5 we read verse 9, And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof. For thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to our God by thy blood, out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation, and hast made us unto our God, kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth. This is something going on now. This is something that the redeemed in heaven are doing. It's not as if we forget what happened. It's not that we will never have reason to offer our praises and our gratitude to him. This is going to be an ongoing inspiration when we see the reality of what actually has been accomplished for us fully. And it was done through the sacrifice of God's own Son. And so here they are eulogizing the Redeemer. This is happening now. Acknowledging and remembering this morning the great sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the benefits, the unsearchable riches of Christ that have been brought to you from the death of our Lord is the spirit and attitude of the worshiper at the table. You ought to be ready when you take the bread. You ought to be ready to acknowledge and celebrate what that bread represents to you. Don't just go through the motions of it. Give thought. What did the broken body of Jesus Christ accomplish for me? These are things that we ought to be familiar with and teach our children as we prepare to worship. And as we take the cup, it's the same way. What does this cup? Paul said we bless the blessed cup. Think of all the blessings contained in that, symbolically contained, and we bless that cup. We say good things about it. In our own spirit, we are so grateful for what that blood achieved and accomplished for us. And so these are important things that we ought to be familiar with, and Paul even cautions against entering into the service as either careless or ignorant. How important it is we are not careless, distracted, or ignorant. And he warns against not taking these elements of the Lord, warns against taking them in an unworthy, non-discerning manner. That's what he means, in an unworthy manner, non-discerning. You're not thinking about them. You're just going through the motion. Or you really don't know what you're doing. You're just doing it. That is undiscerning. We don't want to participate in something so sacred as the table of the Lord in an undiscerning manner. And so he warns. He spends the larger portion here on the Lord's Supper warning them against that kind of conduct. And so I would be remiss if I did not say to you, when you come to the table of the Lord, put your mind there. Be fastened on what he achieved for you in his broken body for you. The veil was rent like his own flesh was broken and crushed. He bore the wrath of God in his own body that you deserved. He was crushed under the weight of your sin. Remember that when you eat the bread. And remember that cup represents his blood redeeming you, buying you, purchasing you out of bondage and claiming you then for himself. Remember that when you drink of the cup. Last night was a restless night for me because every once in a while you have experience where you just sense God is just opening up awareness in you of things that maybe you hadn't thought about, dispositions that you have, attitudes you have, actions. And, you know, I wrestled all night with God. It was a difficult time. And I spent a lot of my night confessing to him. And it's interesting as I sort of take a psalm and I spend a few days, a few weeks on a psalm, and I'm reading that psalm. And today's psalm for me to read was Psalm 38. What an interesting thing God did to expose me to that this morning. And I'll read this. I can't get through it because it just emotionally broke me this morning. Noah's ready to finish it for me if I can't. Psalm 38, would you look at it with me? This represents the spirit and attitude that we ought to have when we enter into the service this morning. I won't read it all, but I'll read the first eight verses and then another verse before we close it. David cries out. It's interesting. It's titled, A Song to Bring to Remembrance. O Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure, for thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore. There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger, neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sins. For mine iniquities are gone over mine head, and as a heavy burden, they're too heavy for me. My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness. I am troubled. I am bowed down greatly. I go mourning all the day long, for my loins are filled with loathsome disease, and there is no soundness in my flesh. I'm feeble, sore broken, and I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart. And in verse 18, I will declare my iniquity, and I will be sorry for my sin. This is the spirit that we ought to have when we come to the table of the Lord. It's Paul, it's Job, it's Isaiah, it's all these men, it's Moses who came into the presence of God and saw who they were. You're in the presence of God. You're in the presence in a very special way. We're always in the presence of God, but there is something very special in this meal that addresses the matter of sin in our life. This happened because of my sin. This is what it took that I could be made a child of God. So when we come this morning, let us come with a deep sense and awareness of what it cost God to rescue us, to deliver us from our sin. Let that be an inspiration for us to leave here today to be more devoted to him than when we came in, inspired by the price that was paid that we would live a more holy life, giving our life more fully to him, the one who purchased it. So it's a great opportunity for us. It's a great time to celebrate and rejoice. It's a great time to tell God with good words, to declare to the son what we think about what he has done for us. Don't be silent. When he said, we bless, that verb means we are speaking words when we take that cup. We are speaking words when we eat that bread. We're saying good things. We're grateful. Are we not? We're grateful. We're thankful for what he has achieved for us at such a great price for us who are undeserving of such a magnificent gift of the son of God. Father, we pray that you would take these things, these thoughts, these reflections from your passages on this matter of the table of the Lord and help us to be reminded of its greatness and help us, Father, to be reminded of what it accomplished. And may we, with good words, be grateful to you. I pray in Christ's name. Amen.