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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?