1

The Benefit and Blessing of the Lord’s Supper, Part 2 (1 Cor. 11:26-32)
Preached by Pastor Phil Layton at GCBC on August 1, 2010
www.goldcountrybaptist.org

An old hymn by Timothy Dwight (“I Love Thy Kingdom Lord”) says this about Communion:

Beyond my highest joy I prize her heavenly ways,

Her sweet communion, solemn vows, Her hymns of love and praise.

Is the sweet Communion we celebrate at church “beyond our highest joy” – is it a happy and
joyful day, as we heard it called by others earlier from church history. Can we be reverent and
rejoice? Or as the hymn line joins “joy … sweet … solemn” … do we?

Psalm 2:11 “Serve the LORD with fear, And rejoice with trembling”
NASB “Worship the Lord with reverence, rejoice with trembling”

The end of v. 12 says “How blessed [lit. “happy”] are those who take refuge in Him / trust in
Him” [the Lord]. Happiness and holy fear of God can go together, and they should. So can
reverence and rejoicing in worship, or trembling and true joy, according to Ps 2.

As we turn to 1 Corinthians 11, that’s the balance and the dynamic it seems Paul is also getting at
in the Communion instructions for the churches. God has always wanted both attitudes in
worship, reverence and rejoicing, gravity and gladness. How much more after Calvary if we
know what we proclaim about the cross?

1 Corinthians 11:26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the
Lord’s death until He comes.

Verses 27-32 then move from there to a serious note, but I want to make sure we don’t miss the
celebration note here. There is joy in proclaiming that the Lord Jesus for the joy set before Him
endured the cross, taking my sins upon Himself, and then giving me His joy eternally in
exchange for my sins. We don’t re-enact the Lord’s death (like the RCC Mass), we proclaim the
once-for-all death of our Lord and celebrate His all-sufficient sacrifice. We don’t look to His
body on the cross in a crucifix or in the bread - we proclaim His resurrected body now in heaven
will come again in the end.

So there is a note of joy in v. 26, and even when sin is addressed later in this text, it is for our joy
and spiritual happiness, as we read in Psalm 32 and Psalm 52 that in repentance, salvation’s joy
is restored, guilt is replaced with gladness, remorse with rejoicing. And in the Lord’s Supper, it’s
not mere memorial, bare symbolism, there is a benefit and blessing to believers: the real presence
of our Lord in a spiritual special way, a real communing, fellowship, joy.

Increasing the JOY of Communion:

1. Look to Jesus
2. Look to Others
3. Look to Yourself (J.O.Y. in that order)

1
 2

1. Look to Jesus

This is the look of faith, as Hebrews 12 says “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter
of our faith.” Or as Paul said even in this same book to the Corinthians, beholding Jesus more is
the key to becoming more like Jesus, seeing His glory and beauty for what it is, transforms us to
His likeness, from glory to glory. And specifically in our text, we look to Jesus in 3 ways:
- Look Up (in thankfulness) – v. 23-24
- Look Back (in remembrance) – v. 24-25
- Look Forward (in anticipation) – v. 26

Look Up (in thankfulness) – v. 23-24

23
For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which
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 …” [we’ll look at the remembrance in the next point]

Part of what we are to do is to give thanks. Certainly “do this” does not just mean eat, but to do
what Jesus did, which was first to give thanks. If we thank the Lord before we partake of
ordinary meals for His provision for us physically, how much more natural should it be and how
much more joyful should we be in thinking of the Lord and thanking the Lord for His provision
spiritually in the events that began to transpire on that night leading to the cross. As you think of
Jesus given for you at Calvary, think of Him now up in heaven at the Father’s right hand and
thank Him with joy. As 1 John says in explaining the fellowship we have as a result of this and
the forgiveness of sins we enjoy when we confess our sins, John says “these things we write to
you, that your joy may be full.”

It’s true that when we pray before we eat a meal it can become a mindless routine and the same
danger is present before we eat of the Lord’s Table (I stand up here as susceptible to mind-
wandering as much as anybody). But I don’t want that to be the case, and that’s one reason we’re
doing this message before we take of communion today, I hope to help us not be ritualists or
traditionalists.

The Lord never wanted worshippers to honor Him with their lips, while their heart is far from
Him. Our chief end, or the reason we were created is to glorify God and to enjoy Him. Joyless
mindless thankless religion does not give God glory or do us any good. In Rom. 1, man’s
problem is not glorifying God nor being thankful.

Look Back (in remembrance) – 1 Cor. 11:24b-25

24b
… “… do this in remembrance of Me.” 25 In the same way He took the cup also after supper,
saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of
Me.”

As we remember the Lord’s body given and blood shed, it’s not a sad recollection of someone
who is dead, it’s not a repetition in any way of that once-for-all sacrifice, it’s a remembrance with
joy of the empty tomb and the living risen Savior whose life and death and resurrection forgives
sin for all in new covenant relationship with Him, all who know Christ intimately by grace
through faith.

2
 3

In John’s gospel, He records that on this same occasion of the Last Supper Jesus also said to His
disciples: “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy
may be made full” (John 15:11)

What Jesus spoke to His disciples at the Last Supper was intended for their ultimate joy. And the
ultimate example of His love then in washing their feet and then in greater measure the next day
in washing away sin eternally at the cross for all His disciples for all time, what greater rejoicing
in remembering Christ can there be? Luke 24 records that after the resurrection they
“remembered His words” (v. 8) and then at the end of the chapter when their eyes were opened to
see and to recognize the Lord’s risen body, they had “great joy” (v. 52). As we remember His
words and look to our risen Savior, so should we

1 Corinthians 11:26 says in Communion we “proclaim His death,” and implied is “and all that
represents.” And there is joy and a note of celebration in this word for proclamation. The
declaration of the death of Jesus on the cross for sin by us whose lives experience the power of
the cross in transforming our lives so that we’re crucified with Christ and no longer live but
Christ lives in and through us, it should make our joy overflow. But v. 26 doesn’t end there …

Look Forward (in anticipation) – v. 26b “ … until He comes”

We don’t proclaim Christ’s physical presence at the Lord’s Table, we proclaim His bodily return
in the future; He’s coming again! At the Last Supper He said: “I will see you again, and your
heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you” (Jn 16:22).

We look to Jesus for past, present, future blessings

2. Look to Others (Look around)

Verse 27 warns against eating or drinking the Lord’s Supper “in an unworthy manner.”
Verse 29: “For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge
the body rightly.”

In this context, v. 32 makes clear that v. 29 isn’t about eternal consequences for believers, but
there are earthly ones. Sin can hinder our fellowship as Father/child and bring fatherly discipline

What does it mean at the end of v. 29, “judge the body rightly”?
I believe he’s talking about the body of Christ, i.e., the church. Look back in context to 10:17:
Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread.

There is a oneness and unity and common source signified as we eat of the bread and drink of the
cup in Communion (v. 16, 21). We eat together because we are together in Christ in His family.
The bread reminds us of the physical body of Christ given for us, but as Christ told His disciples
they wouldn’t see Him again until His bodily return at the end of time. We don’t see that body in
the bread but we do see His spiritual body around us at Communion. It’s not what’s on the Lord’s
Table, it’s who’s around the Table that the NT calls “the body of Christ.” The bread symbolizes
the body of Christ, but spiritually believers are the body of Christ!

3
 4

To judge wrongly the body of Christ (the believers around you) is unworthy of and inconsistent
with the purpose of Communion that is to celebrate our union and unity with Christ and our
union and unity with other believers in the body of Christ! We commune with Christ today not
privately or by ourselves (like in a prayer closet or in our home for other spiritual disciplines).
We partake together in corporate worship to commune with Christ and with His body, the church,
which Paul says in another place Christ purchased with His own precious blood! That’s why this
is so important to Christ in 11:29, we’re His body. This hit me! Has it hit you? Look around at
the body of Christ; don’t look in this basket up here for it. Do you see and discern and recognize
Christ’s body all around you here?

NKJV/ESV translates 11:29b “not discerning the body”

NIV/HCSB “without recognizing the body”
NET “without careful regard for the body”
NLT “without honoring the body of Christ”
TEV “not thinking about the body of Christ”
CEV “if you fail to understand you are the body of Christ”

Do you understand that since Jesus has gone to heaven, there is a visible body He left behind of
flesh-and-blood? Not a miraculous change in the cracker or cup behind me but in the
miraculously changed Christians I see in front of me who have been transformed so that once
enemies are now seated at the Lord’s Table! There is a real miracle signified by Communion, but
it’s a greater miracle than many think! Not a water-to-wine or wine-to-blood or bread-to-body
transformation, but from death-to-life, darkness-to-light, blind-given-sight, unable-given-might,
hell-bound-given-Christ! It’s a miracle of Almighty God that we’re in the body of Christ!!
We didn’t do it and we’ll never deserve it, but a miracle of mercy put us in the body. None of us
were or are better or more worthy of grace that brought us to this table, therefore don’t elevate
yourself and denigrate the body (church) Christ shed His precious blood for

The church is not a symbol. The church is Christ’s body so profoundly that as Paul met the Lord
Jesus on the Damascus Road while he was persecuting the church, Jesus said to him “why are
you persecuting Me?” The head and the body are inseparable, that’s why this is a big deal.

Remember, there were no chapter divisions when Paul wrote this letter to the Corinthians, and
the end of what our Bible marks as chapter 11 is all a build-up to chapter 12’s discussion of this:
13
For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body,
though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized
into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of
one Spirit. 14 For the body is not one member, but many … … 18 But now God has placed the
members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. 19 If they were all one member,
where would the body be? 20 But now there are many members, but one body …24 whereas our
more presentable members have no need of it. But God has so composed the body, giving more
abundant honor to that member which lacked [this is the problem in Corinth in chapter 11, they
were dishonoring members that lacked], 25 so that there may be no division in the body [another
problem in 11], but that the members may have the same care for one another … [this is the
climax of his argument and key problem in chapter 11, they weren’t caring for and looking to
others in the body] … 27 Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it.

4
 5

Once you see the context before and after, it opens up chapter 11 and you see the warning in
verse 29 in context especially has to do with sins in thought or deed against others in the body of
Christ:

11:16 But if one is inclined to be contentious, we have no other practice, nor have the churches
of God. 17 But in giving this instruction, I do not praise you, because you come together not for
the better but for the worse. 18 For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I
hear that divisions exist among you
[some of the factions Paul mentioned in chapter 1 as being
personality-driven, “I’m of Paul, I’m of Apollos, I’m of Peter, I’m of Christ” (i.e. super-
spiritual Jesus-only crowd) –they had their own cliques / divisions, we can have others]
… 20 Therefore when you meet together, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper, 21 for in your eating
each one takes his own supper …
[this is supposed to be the Lord’s Supper, but you act like this is “your supper,” like it’s
all about you!? Apparently there was a love feast before communion, similar to Last
Supper, but it was a lot of feast and not a whole lot of love]
…and one is hungry and another is drunk. 22 What! Do you not have houses in which to eat and
drink? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing?
[our lack of consideration for others in the body of Christ who have less or are less in our
view of them is a despising of the church God gave His only begotten son up for. You
may not come drunk to Communion … that’s a good start, but this passage is not just
saying don’t be drunk at church]
… 33 So then, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another.
[before and after the verses on Communion is this focus on how we think of one another
and treat one another in the body of Christ. The Corinthians violated the very spirit of
Communion in their own way, but we can do it in other ways. The context is leading up
to chapter 12’s teaching on the body of Christ, and 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter]

The Lord doesn’t want His people in His body to worship in His holy ordinance of communion
when they’re in unholy sin against the unity and union that it represents.

Romans 12 1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a
living and holy sacrifice [singular, i.e., together as one sacrifice spiritually in corporate worship]
acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
… 4 For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same
function, 5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of
another
… 10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor …
18
If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.

Jesus gives an example of how to apply that. Matthew 5:22 warns of danger of judgment when
we’re angry with our brother or speak unkindly …
23
“Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your
brother has something against you, 24 leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be
reconciled to your brother, and then come …

5
 6

There aren’t many things more important than worship in the Bible but this is one: a warning
against hypocritical worship. And to Paul in 1 Cor. 11 it’s especially hypocritical to eat
Communion with our lips while our heart is so far from what it represents because we have
wronged or hurt others in the body and the unity we celebrate

What if others have hurt us? Jesus taught His followers in Mt 6:2 part of regular prayer is:
“forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Not only does that teach
our need to continually ask forgiveness even when we’re already believers who have God as our
Father, relational parental forgiveness that has to do with fellowship or discipline, not eternal
punishment. We not only need to regularly repent and seek forgiveness from God for our sins as
we pray, but we need to also regularly forgive others as we pray, asking God “forgive me the
same way I forgive others”

Make sure you mean what that’s saying when you pray the Lord’s Prayer or any prayer before
you come to the Lord’s Table. If you don’t and won’t forgive others and do what you can, as
much as depends on you, to live at peace with others, especially those in the family of Christ in
spiritual relationship with you, v. 14-15 warn you very clearly that not all is right in your
spiritual relationship with your Heavenly Father. The horizontal/vertical are related.

Mark 11:25 “Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so
that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions.”

If that should be true whenever you’re praying, certainly it should be the case when you pray
before you partake of the ordinance that celebrates the Lord’s undeserved forgiveness given to
you. And the relational forgiveness of a Father-to-child is offered to you; you’re still God’s child
when you are in sin, but you need to repent of sin against Him or against His body/family to
restore that fellowship.

Didache, 14 (document written shortly after NT completed), on Lord’s Supper/Lord’s Day: “give
thanksgiving after having confessed your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure. But let
no one who is at odds with his fellow come together with you, until they be reconciled, that your
sacrifice may not be profaned. For this is that which was spoken by the Lord”

3. Look to Yourself

This language is borrowed from Paul in Galatians 6:1 “each one looking to yourselves …” – how
does Paul want us to do this here? 1 Cor. 11:27 Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the
cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. 28
But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

- Look Inward - v. 27-28

Examine Yourself:

Not to see if you are worthy, you and I never will be (Luke 17:10). Unworthy in the grammar is
not an adjective describing the person who eats or drinks, it’s an adverb describing how they eat
or drink. The language of v. 27 has to do with an unworthy way in which we eat or drink.

6
 7

It’s speaking of eating or drinking in an unworthy manner/conduct inconsistent with what we are
celebrating, insensitive to Christ, inconsiderate of His body.

For sin contradicting what you celebrate (v. 27, 5:7-8)

We don’t and can’t make ourselves worthy as sinners, but as David prayed in Psalm 19:13 we
can and should pray “Keep back your servant from presumptuous sins. Let them have dominion
over me”

We don’t wait till we have no sin to come, otherwise no one would ever come. Only sinners are
allowed at this table, but not brazen flagrant unrepentant presumptuous sinners who don’t try to
turn from their sin but want to have their cake of sin and eat this, too. If that’s you, religious
exercises aren’t good, they’re dangerous. If you don’t see yourself as an unworthy sinner, if
you’re unrepentant of your sin, unwilling to change, you’re unwelcome to this Table.

But if you know you’re unworthy and undeserving and you repent before the only Worthy One,
the Lord, His table can be for you!

Charles Hodge: ‘Christ came to heal not the healthy but the consciously sick. [If we have] doubt
and misgiving of our being duly prepared to come to the Lord’s Table … such doubts, although
evidence of weak faith, indicate a better state of mind than indifference or false security … To
eat or drink in an unworthy manner is in general to come to the Lord’s Table in a careless,
irreverent spirit, without the intention or desire to commemorate the death of Christ as the
sacrifice for our sins, and without intending to comply with the commitments that we undertake
in that service. The way in which the Corinthians ate unworthily [11:16-22] … is not the only
way in which people may eat and drink unworthily. All that is necessary to note is that the
warning is directly against the careless and profane, and not against the timid and the doubting’1

Look at chap. 5. If we recognize sin, what do we do? Be cleansed:

5:7 Clean out the old leaven [symbolizes sin] so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in
fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us celebrate
the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the
unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Examine Yourself 2ndly: for salvation (2 Cor. 13:5, 5:17)

2 Cor. 13:5 Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not
recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?

2 Cor. 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away;
behold, new things have come.

Salvation in Christ is a person-transforming, kingdom-transferring, mind-transcending, heart-

transplanting, miracle of God changing you. If you’re not sure it’s taken place in your life, I
invite you not to Communion today, I invite you to Christ, the reality represented by the bread
and cup. Turn from your sin and trust in Him given for you on the cross as your only hope of
heaven, and ask Him to make you a brand-new person inside-out.

7
 8

Christians, Examine with God’s help to change

Examine yourself, but not by yourself, and not just your outward selfish or sinful actions, but
your inner selfish sinful attitudes. It’s great that God forgives our sinful deeds, but we need His
help to get to the root of them in our hearts, so we can change inside-out. One of the joys of this
process is God helps us change and grow!

Psalm 26:2 Examine me, O LORD, and try me; Test my mind and my heart.

Psalm 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; 24
And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.

- Look outward to grace as you repent

James 4:6-10
1 John 1:9, 3-4
Psalm 51 (note v. 8, 12)
Psalm 32 (note v. 1-2, 10-11)

Spurgeon spoke of the joy we can then have in Communion: ‘we are coming to a festival, not a
funeral. The choice festival of the Jewish faith was the Passover. The Lord’s supper takes its
place with higher joys; we come to this feast to testify our joy in Christ … [a cup of wine in
Scripture often signifies] joy and delight, and you cannot praise Christ better, and give thanks to
him better than by rejoicing in him. Praise him by your grateful joy. I think that we should
always come to the Lord’s table with a feeling of deep reverence; but that reverence should never
tend to bondage. We want you not to come here quivering and shaking, as if you were slaves that
came to eat a morsel of your master’s bread, under fear of the lash. No, no; come … beloved
ones of the Lord! Come, ye table companions of Christ, and sit at the festival he has prepared,
and let your joy be full of thanksgiving! … with some of us, it is over forty years since our first
communion, and we do not want any better food. We desire to keep in memory the same Christ,
to feed upon the same doctrine … [till] we shall have a sweeter tooth for Christ even than we
have [today]. He will be more dear to us, more precious, more delightsome … So we come to the
table to show our gratitude …’2 Let’s come with both gravity and gladness

8
1
Charles Hodge. 1 Corinthians. The Crossway classic commentaries (1 Co 11:27). Wheaton, Ill.:
Crossway Books (1995).
2
Charles H. Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Vol. 38, #2268.