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On September 13, 1814, British navy ships began the bombardment of Fort McHenry. Fort McHenry guarded the entrance to Baltimore, Maryland. The British were trying to force the fort’s surrender and open the way to occupying Baltimore. From that evening until the morning of September 14, 1814, the British launched about 1,500 bombs on the fort.
The commander of the Fort, Major George Armistead, refused to surrender. After all the bombs, he made it clear that he would not surrender by taking down the small flag and hoisting a 17′ by 25′ flag over the fort. The British realized that they would not be able to take the fort and gave up.
Nearby, on a British boat, an American who was there due to a prisoner exchange, witnessed the battle. Francis Scott Key saw the bombs and the first use of rockets on the continent, noticing the “rocket’s red glare.” Then, he saw the flag raised. It led him to write a poem with the following words: “Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?” And the answer came back in the next stanza: “Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam, In full glory reflected now shines in the stream: ‘Tis the star-spangled banner!”
So, why do I bring all this up? Think about the star-spangled banner. It’s just a piece of cloth, right? In one way, yes, but in other ways, that is completely false. It is so much more. It is a symbol, and symbols have power! They really represent and convey the thing they represent. They have deep meaning. So, when we see that flag as Americans, it moves us deeply. It has a real power.
The Lord’s Supper is a sort of flag that Jesus has planted to powerfully represent and convey to us all that He is. It is a tool that He has given us to bring about transformation in our lives. That’s what we want to consider here in this text. I want you to see three things in this text: what God says about this supper, how God can say that about the supper, and how the supper transforms us. My goal is that you would see that the Lord’s Supper is a powerful tool to transform us and reshape us into the image of God, reflecting His glory.
What God Says About the Supper
In this letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul is dealing with a variety of issues which had arisen in the church at Corinth. One problem these early Christians faced was the presence of idolatry. The worship of the gods was not something simply practiced in people’s private lives or in the temples. It was part of everyday life. So, the question was, how do you engage in society and retain your faith?
This is not so different from what we experience today. In many ways, to engage in secular culture requires us to “act secular” in a way, even though we believe God is Lord of all of life. It’s not that different than what Christians face in Muslim countries where Ramadan is celebrated. They do not participate, but it is part of the culture. Looking at it from the reverse perspective, Christmas is a national holiday and its celebration is part of our culture, but there are many people in our nation who do not believe in Christmas or might find it contrary to their own faith. That’s the sort of issue the people were facing in Corinth. How do you participate in the society when the dominant religion is different than your own?
The Apostle Paul does not give a simple answer to that question in these pages. He does not want them to disengage, but he also does not want them to engage in idolatry. So, he says that it is important that a person clearly separate himself from idolatrous practices. The occasion of his statements is the particular question of meat offered to idols. He says that a person needs to be careful here and uses an analogy from the Lord’s Supper. “Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?” (1 Cor. 10:16). In a similar way, those who eat the food sacrificed to idols participate in the idols. He does not mean, of course, “that food sacrificed to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything” (v. 19). “No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons” (v. 20). To serve the idols rather than God is a great sin, and you do not want to participate in it.
On the other hand, God teaches us through his servant that since an idol is nothing, and all creation is good and to be received, then we should not actually worry about eating meat that has been sacrificed to idols. “Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, for, ‘The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.'” (1 Cor. 10:25–26). So, they should not act as if anything in the world really belonged to idols or demons. Instead, they should see all of creation as belonging to God and as His. In this way, whether they ate or drank, they could do it all to the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31).
Now, I want to talk about the Lord’s Supper, but let me say something briefly about what God is teaching us here. First, we must not disengage. Whatever others may say about the world, the state, or business, it belongs to God. We can and should be involved in it to His glory. On the other hand, we cannot simply adopt the practices of the world unthinkingly. We do not want to engage in idolatry. This takes great wisdom. It’s easy to just disengage from the world or to compromise with it. It’s harder to engage and also keep our principles, but that is what God calls us to do. As I said, this takes tremendous wisdom, but we have an all-wise and all-good God who is merciful and is willing to give wisdom to those who ask for it.
Now, let’s look more carefully about what God says about the Supper. In v. 21, He says that it is the cup of the Lord and the table of the Lord. That’s why we call it the Lord’s Supper. The table does not belong to us. It belongs to Jesus. Anyone who comes to Jesus belongs there. It’s easy to see it as something belonging to the church or to the minister, but it does not. It belongs to Jesus. He is the one who welcomes people there. It is His table. It is His cup. It’s His flag that He is planting here today under which we come.
In v. 16, he calls the cup a cup of thanksgiving. That is why we sometimes call the Lord’s Supper the “eucharist.” Eucharist comes from the Greek word for thanksgiving. It is a sacrifice of thanksgiving and praise to the Lord as we give thanks for what Jesus has done for us.
It is also a communion with the blood of Christ. He also says that the bread is a communion with the body of Christ. That is why we sometimes call the Lord’s Supper “communion.” It is a communion with the broken body and shed blood of Christ. It’s not a mere symbol. It’s not just an act we do. It is a participation in the body and blood of Christ.
Note very carefully, though, that when it says that it is a communion in the body of Christ, there is an ambiguity there. Is the “body” Christ’s human body or the church or both? The answer is both. It is communion with Christ, but we come to the table together and so it is a communion with one another. That’s why you will find Paul in the next chapter rebuking them so sharply for not waiting for one another and sharing the Supper.
Saying that this supper is a communion with the body and blood of Christ is a very remarkable statement. How can this bread and this cup be a communion with the body and blood of Christ? That’s what we want to consider in the next statement.
How God Can Say that About the Supper
First, we must understand that symbols are not empty things or acts. We spoke in the introduction of the American flag. What we do with the American flag really communicates something about our relationship to the nation. If we burn it, we are saying something. If we honor it, we are saying something. We are even participating ritually in fellowship with or rejection of our nation.
You can see that this is true from one of the most powerful symbols that we use in life, the wedding ring. If you come home, and your wife notices that your wedding ring is gone and asks you what happened to it and you respond, “Not sure. It’s just a ring”; then, you will be in trouble. If your wife comes to you and throws the wedding ring in your face, that really communicates something powerful about the marriage, does it not? The ring is a sort of communion in the marriage.
On the other hand, there is nothing magical or automatic in the ring. You are not automatically married simply because you have a wedding ring. You have to have the assent and agreement of the covenant of marriage that it represents.
So, the Lord’s Supper is a sort of wedding ring. It is God confirming His commitment of love to us. He is reminding us that He is committed to us and that the church is His bride. It is the flag that represents His kingdom and our participation in it. It is a symbol, but it has the power that important symbols have. Just like the wedding ring, the Lord’s Supper is a very powerful and meaningful thing!
However, that is not all. The reason is that Jesus is alive and reigning and has promised to be present with us to the end of the age. So, He is present with us to make this Supper real in our hearts and lives. He is present to apply to us all that He has in a unique and powerful way.
Our Shorter Catechism, a series of question and answers explaining the faith, provides a beautiful explanation of this:
Q. 96. What is the Lord’s supper? A. The Lord’s supper is a sacrament, wherein, by giving and receiving bread and wine according to Christ’s appointment, his death is showed forth; and the worthy receivers are, not after a corporal and carnal manner, but by faith, made partakers of his body and blood, with all his benefits, to their spiritual nourishment and growth in grace.
By Christ’s spiritual presence in the Supper, we are nourished spiritually and grow in grace. That’s what God is doing in the Supper, strengthening our faith and nourishing us in it so that we can grow in grace. That’s what it means when God tells us that the Supper is a communion with the body and blood of Christ.
How God Transforms Through the Supper
Now, God is doing all sorts of things in the Supper above and beyond our thought. His grace is greater than we can imagine. We should not think that His activity or grace is limited to what we say or think or imagine. He is at work. This is His Supper, and this is His abundant gift to us, far beyond what we could think or imagine.
The question is, how do we join what God is doing in this work so that we align our hearts and minds with what He wants to do here? How do make every effort to use the Supper as a tool of transformation?
The first thing we should do is pray. You will notice that we always begin the Supper with a prayer of blessing, asking God’s blessing on it. So should you. Ask God to use it in your life before the service. Take a moment on Saturday night or Sunday morning to pray that it would be efficacious in your life and the life of our church.
Second, think about it. Meditate on it. Think about what it means. Think about God as our Creator being present here. Think about our sin that caused the death of our Savior. Think of the presence of the Father who provides the Son, the Son who redeemed us with His blood, and the Spirit who applies these benefits to our lives. Think about how God gives us everything we need for life and godliness so that we may participate in the divine nature. Think about how much gratitude we owe to God for all that He has given us from creation to redemption to consummation. Think about it not just in this hour but every hour and every day. Let it shape your hearts and lives.
Third, apply it. You see how the Apostle Paul used the Lord’s Supper here. He is talking about how to participate in the world, but his mind goes immediately to the Lord’s Supper. He wants this communion in the body and blood of Christ to shape how we think about the world. I know for myself that I am so far from where I should be on this, but let us make an effort to apply it in different situations. How does the Lord’s Supper teach us to think about our work, our family, our friends, our neighbors, our politics? That is the work of a lifetime and very rewarding. It will teach us to do all things, whether we eat or drink, to the glory of God.
Let me give you a couple of examples from history to show you how this can work out. John Paton went in the 19th century to what was then called the New Hebrides in the South Pacific. His goal was to tell those who lived in these islands and served other gods about the true God and salvation in Jesus Christ. When he went, one of the ladies’ missionary societies in Scotland had given him a silver communion set in anticipation of the day when the first believers would come and celebrate the Lord’s Supper for the first time. That day finally came, and here is how he described it:
For years we had toiled and prayed and taught for this. At the moment when I put the bread and wine into those dark hands, once stained with the blood of cannibalism but now stretched out to receive and partake the emblems and seals of the Redeemer’s love, I had a foretaste of the joy of glory that well-nigh broke my heart to pieces. I shall never taste a deeper bliss till I gaze on the glorified face of Jesus himself.
The Lord’s Supper sealed for John Paton everything he had learned in the Gospel, and he never forgot it. That’s what it can do for us, too.
The second example is from the Duke of Wellington, the British commander who defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo. One day, he went in to the church to take the Lord’s Supper. He knelt down at the altar, and a poor man knelt down beside him. One of the Duke’s servants tapped the poor man on the shoulder and whispered something to him. The poor man began to get up. The alert Duke knew what had happened, and he said to the poor man, “Stay! Here we are equal.” The Lord’s Supper had taught the Duke something significant about people, and it can do the same for us. So, let us meditate on it and look for all that the Holy Spirit wants to do in this amazing tool of transformation. Amen.