Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

How many Christians stop to consider the importance of the Lord’s Supper in relation to spiritual maturity?

Yet the Scriptures make it plain that this feast of remembrance is indispensable to steadfast continuance in the Christian life.

Having said this, however, it must be made clear that’ the Lord’s Supper is not a means of obtaining salvation or merit.

In fact, as we shall see a little later, participation in this feast is restricted to believers only.

Another misconception which must be cleared up is that of associating the Holy Communion with transubstantiation or consubstantiation.

Nowhere in the Word of God are we taught that the Lord’s Supper is a continuance of the one sacrifice offered forever upon the cross, or that those who partake of the bread and wine eat and drink the actual body and blood of Christ.

Such notions as these only serve to rob this simple remembrance service of its essential meaning, purpose and blessing.

Let us understand that the Lord’s Supper was instituted by the Master himself in order to provide a means whereby we might uniquely demonstrate our Christian faith, hope and love to the audiences of heaven, earth and hell until Jesus comes again.

It has been well stated that life’s most significant truths are not spoken, but are acted out.

In the communion service we act out what we believe.

This feast of remembrance is indispensable to a steadfast continuance in the Christian life.

It was instituted by our Lord as a demonstration of our Christian faith, ho and love to the audiences of heaven, earth and hell “till He come.”

I.

The Breaking of Bread is an Act of Obedience

In introducing this statement, the apostle says, “Keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you” (1 Corinthians 11:2).

Then, quoting our Savior’s words, he reminds us that Jesus commanded, “This do”; and again, “This do ye” (11:24, 25).

A. Obedience Means a Willingness to Observe the Ordinance

As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup” (11:26).

Judging by the rarity of the occasions on which this feast of remembrance is observed in the Christian church today, we would have to conclude that the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, to most people, is a burdensome duty, rather than an act of willing obedience.

1. Amplify

… to show that the practice of the early church was the regular observance of the Lord’s Supper (see Acts 2:46 and Acts 20:7).

Paul said, As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till he come.”

B. Obedience Means a Worthiness to Observe the Ordinance

“Whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord” (11:27).

These words obviously exclude the unregenerate person from sharing in this feast.

But the statement does more: it lays a solemn responsibility upon every believer to examine himself—his attitudes and actions—before observing the Lord’s Supper (see 11:27–32).

C. Obedience Means a Watchfulness to Observe the Ordinance

Paul warns against not discerning the Lord’s body (11:29).

A believer at a communion service has a far more sacred and important duty to perform than to examine other people’s hats, or talk in undertones, or look bored; he is committed to an active and watchful obedience.

To discern the Lord’s body, he must seek by personal concentration and spiritual appreciation to see beyond the shadow to the Substance, and beyond the physical symbols to the Savior Himself.

2. Amplify

… by discussing ways and means of making the communion service meaning and precious.

II.

The Breaking of Bread is an Act of Remembrance

“This do,” said Jesus, “in remembrance of me” (11:24, 25).

The ordinance was not to be a mere memorial of an historical event, but a sacramental opportunity for “calling to mind” the Lord Jesus Himself.

The exact word “remembrance” is only employed in the New Testament four times, and three of these occasions occur in connection with the Lord’s Supper.

This is no mere passive recollection, but a specific activity whereby the whole personality is committed to a given purpose, a living encounter with Christ Himself.

A. The Spirit is Given over to Adoration

Both in the Gospels and here in 1 Corinthians 11, the breaking of bread is associated with giving; thanks (11–24, 25).

Deep thankfulness to God, in the light of Calvary love does, to a certain degree, find expression in “the fruit of our lips’ (Hebrews 13:15).

But preeminently, thanksgiving and adoration are an activity of the spirit.

“God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24).

B. The Soul is Given over to Contemplation

“This do in remembrance of me” (1 Corinthians 11:24, 25).

We have already observed that adoration calls to mind the Person of Christ.

The deep reality of His death will necessarily occupy the heart at such a moment, but them should be, at the same time, the full recognition of Christ Himself as the Living One.

If our worship is “in spirit and in truth,” then Jesus will come before the soul’s contemplation through the meaning of the symbols (Luke 24:30–35), the ministry of the Scriptures (the greatest teaching; compare John 13–16; also Acts 20:7–12), and the miracle of the Spirit (John 16:13, 14).

4. Illustrate

… e.g.

Stephen Olford recounts: I once heard Mr. Montague Goodman, an outstanding preacher and Bible expositor, say that truth had nowhere become so real to him as in a communion service.

He went further and confessed that even though it was never his set intention to prepare messages at such times, nevertheless entire sermons emerged out of those periods of quiet contemplation of Christ.

C. The Body is Given over to Dedication

“Eat this bread, and drink this cup” (1 Corinthians 11:26).

While we know that no merit is communicated through material bread and wine, it must be clear to the spiritual mind that the physical act of eating and drinking of these symbols is a faith identification of the believer’s body with the body and blood of Christ.

And when we recall that His body was separated to God, and His blood was sacrificed unto death, then identification with him demands the dedication of our souls, our lives, our all.

5. Amplify

… to show the true meaning of dedication (see Romans 12:1–2).

III.

The Breaking of Bread is an Act of Allegiance

“For as often as ye eat bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till he come” (11:26).

The words “ye do show” are better expressed “ye do proclaim.”

Every time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper we show our allegiance to Christ and Him crucified, and since we are involved in His redemptive work, because of Calvary, we declare our allegiance in a threefold way.

A. We Show Allegiance to Christ in our Fellowship in Him

“For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do proclaim” (11:26).

The many loaves and multiple cups that are used throughout the world represent, in the last analysis, the one Christ in His broken body and outpoured blood.

Participation in this feast of remembrance is a testimony to the fact that we are one in Christ, “for we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread” (1 Corinthians 10:17).

Or as the hymnist puts it:

Yes, this table of communion,

Whither by the Lord we’re led,

Sweetly speaks of blessed union,

One the body, one the bread.

6. Illustrate

… e.g.

Stephen Olford recounts: Perhaps my most vivid recollection of a communion service was when scores of African believers converged on a mission station for a week of meetings and a concluding feast of remembrance.

The remarkable feature of this particular event was that at least a dozen different tribes were represented.

Five or ten years before this, these people would have been at one another’s throats in mortal combat, but now they were quietly sitting around a rough camp table on which was spread a white cloth and simple vessels containing bread and wine.

As I recall that scene of silent worship and sweet fellowship, I can think of no better caption than the words of the apostle, “All one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28).

B. We Show Allegiance to Christ by our Faith in Him

“Ye do proclaim the Lord’s death” (11:26).

The central fact of “the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3) is the death of Christ.

All the other doctrines of the Christian Church are held together by this pivotal truth.

When a godly Jew observed the Passover feast, he looked forward, by faith, to the death of Christ.

When the Lord Jesus instituted the holy Supper, He directed His disciples to look back to His death.

And so both feasts—the Old Testament Passover and the New Testament Supper—testify to the centrality of the cross.

Whether to the world or to the Church, the Lord’s Supper proclaims that “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3).

7. Illustrate

… e.g.

Stephen Olford recounts: In the African church in which I grew up as a boy, it was not an uncommon experience to see men and women gloriously born again at a communion service.

As they sat silently and watched the demonstration of the Christian faith in this simple ordinance of the breaking of bread, the meaning of the symbols, the, ministry of the Scriptures and the miracle of the Holy Spirit wrought transformations again and again.

In a very real way, therefore, the breaking of bread is a preaching service in that the ordinance heralds forth, proclaims, the Lord’s death.

C. We Show Allegiance to Christ by our Future in Him

“Ye do proclaim the Lord’s death till he come” (11:26).

Every time we meet to remember the Lord according to His prescribed pattern, we declare, in no uncertain terms, the doctrine of the second corning of Christ, which is the blessed hope of the Church.

Indeed, the breaking of bread is the link between the cross and the crown, the first advent and the second advent.

Every time we gather in this way we should think more deeply of this blessed hope until we are purified by its sanctifying influence, even as He is pure (1 John 3:2, 3).

8. Illustrate

… e.g.

When orthodox Jews celebrate the Passover there is an empty chair at the table.