A Question of Fellowship
Notes
Transcript
I speak as to wise men; judge ye 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. Behold Israel after the flesh: are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar? What say I then? that the idol is any thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing? But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?
Tonight’s passage presents an interesting challenge for interpreters of Scripture. In just a few verses Paul moves from the Lord’s Supper to Old Testament sacrifices to pagan sacrifices and eventually to God’s jealousy. So, the obvious question is, What do these things have to do with each another? And just as important, How they relate to Paul’s discussion of the wilderness temptations at the beginning of this chapter or his discussion of head coverings in the next? What exactly was his point?
And the first verse of our text raises a different question. Paul wrote in verse 15,
I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say.
But just a few chapters earlier he scoffed at the supposed wisdom of the Corinthians, saying sarcastically, We are fools for Christ’s sake, but ye are wise in Christ (1 Cor. 4:10). So, were the Corinthians wise or were they fools? Actually, they were both. To the extent that they relied on their own wisdom — siding with Apollos or Cephas, or countenancing incest, or suing their brothers and sisters in pagan courts — they were fools. They showed little spiritual discernment and even less desire to obey. But in Christ they were wise. The Spirit was working in them to make them more like Jesus. He wasn’t done yet, but the work had begun. Thus, they were both wise and fools, depending how we look at it.
We’re in the same boat. Most counseling is simply reminding people of the same things they’ve heard a hundred times from the pulpit. They just need to hear it in a new way. They need to be redirected to the wisdom that’s found only in Jesus.
The Cup and the Bread
The Cup and the Bread
The first subject in this evening’s text is the Lord’s Supper. But it wasn’t Paul’s purpose here to explain the Supper. That will come in the next chapter. Here the topic is idolatry. Participating in a communal meal as an act of worship links the participant with the God who hosts the meal. Thus, the Corinthians had to make a choice. They could either participate in Christ’s meal, in which he was their host and they were his guests, or they could participate in Gentile rituals that necessitate fellowship with demons. But they couldn’t do both. One way or another, they had to make a choice. Verse 21 is clear:
Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils.
Even though it wasn’t Paul purpose here to teach us about the Supper per se, he did so nonetheless. Tonight we want to consider what he said.
Verse 16 starts us off with two rhetorical questions:
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?
The answer to both questions is undoubtedly yes. When we drink the wine of the communion cup, we are participating in the blood of Christ. And when we eat the communion bread, we are participating in the body of Christ. This parallels the practice of the Old Testament, where those who ate the sacrifices of the altar partook of the altar. Verse 18 of our text says,
Behold Israel after the flesh: are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar?
But how does this participation work? What does it mean to participate in the altar or in the body and blood of Jesus?
There are some who say that our participation in the body and blood of Christ is physical and local. At some point in the service, the substance of the bread ceases to be bread and becomes instead Jesus’ flesh, and the substance of the wine ceases to be wine and becomes his blood. However, the bread still looks and tastes like bread, and the wine still looks and tastes like wine, because their accidence or outward form hasn’t change. The only thing that has changed is the inward reality. This teaching is known as transubstantiation (a transformation of substance). Others insist that, although the bread remains bread and the wine wine, the body and blood of Jesus are present “in, with and under” the elements. We call this consubstantiation (with the substance).
However, the Bible teaches neither transubstantiation nor consubstantiation. When Jesus first gave this sacred meal to his disciples in the upper room, his body was still whole. It had not yet been pierced; he had not yet shed his blood for our sins.
And furthermore, there’s also a much simpler way to interpret verse 16 of our text. It’s this: believers partake of Jesus’ body and blood not physically but spiritually. They partake of it with the assurance that the benefits of Jesus’ death on the cross that the bread and wine represent are really ours. Because he died in our place, we have the full forgiveness of all our sins. The stains that were once scarlet are now white as snow. Our transgressions have been removed from us as far as the east is from the west. Jesus paid it all, suffering the punishment that we deserve. This is to say that in the Supper we partake of the spiritual blessings that Jesus earned for us by giving his body and blood for our sins.
Question 79 of the Heidelberg Catechism informs us that our text uses what we sometimes call ‘sacramental language’ to lay before the vast benefits of Jesus’ death. It asks,
Why then does Christ call the bread His body, and the cup His blood, or the new testament in His blood, and St. Paul, the communion of the body and the blood of Christ?
Christ speaks thus not without great cause, namely, not only to teach us thereby, that like as the bread and wine sustain this temporal life, so also His crucified body and shed blood are the true meat and drink of our souls unto life eternal; but much more, by this visible sign and pledge to assure us, that we are as really partakers of His true body and blood by the working of the Holy Ghost, as we receive by the mouth of the body these holy tokens in remembrance of Him; and that all His sufferings and obedience are as certainly our own, as if we ourselves had suffered and done all in our own person.
In this way, we and all true believers participate in the body and blood of Christ.
Thus, our participation in Christ’s death involves both a vertical and a horizontal dimension. The vertical is the fellowship that we have with Jesus Christ and, through him, the Father. Paul mentioned this in the first chapter of 1 Corinthians. He wrote,
God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
And John likewise wrote,
That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
The horizontal dimension highlights our relationship with each other. One verse where we see this is Acts 2:42, which explicitly mentions “the breaking of the bread” (τῇ κλάσει τοῦ ἄρτου) — a term designating the Lord’s Supper — as one thing in which we find unity. Concerning the early church Luke wrote,
And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.
Covenantal Fellowship
Covenantal Fellowship
Now, to appreciate this even more let’s look again at what Paul wrote in our text.
The apostle began with the cup. When Jesus gave the Supper to his disciples, he distributed the bread first. Matthew, Mark and Luke are very clear about this. Even Paul’s account in the next chapter of 1 Corinthians says the same thing. So why the difference here?
First, we should note here that Paul’s argument is theological, not historical. His purpose was not to recount what Jesus did but what it meant.
And second, he probably switched the order because he wanted to highlight the bread in verse 17. He saw the bread as a symbol of the unity of the church.
Paul called the cup the cup of blessing. This identifies it as the third cup used in the Jewish celebration of the Passover, which was also known as the cup of redemption. When Jesus gave it to his disciples, he spoke of our redemption when he said, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you (Luke 22:20). But he also spoke of the new covenant. The cup fulfilled Jeremiah’ prediction that God would make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. The new covenant, unlike the old, would be internalized and real and unbreakable (Jer. 31:31–34). And when Jesus gave the cup of blessing to his disciples, he was telling them that the long-awaited new covenant — a covenant rich with redemption and the forgiveness of sins — had arrived in his person and work, and that they (and all true believers) were sharers in it.
But Jesus also gave his disciples bread. The point it makes is a little different, as we see in verse 17. Although the translation of this verse is difficult, its main idea is the oneness of bread illustrates the oneness of the church. Just as there’s only one bread-stuff in the Lord’s Supper, there’s also only one body of Christ. But this unity also allows for diversity: the bread can be, and is, divided in the Supper; and the church has many members with different personalities and gifts. Yet, the differences found in both do not obscure the underlying unity of either.
How the unity and diversity relate to each other is an interesting topic that actually affedts several doctrines — the Trinity, the unity of the human race, the federal headship of Christ, and so on — but we don’t have time to go into all of that now. Instead, I just want to emphasize again why Paul mentioned it in our text. Remember, his purpose was to warn the Corinthians of idolatry. Worshiping the true God through faith in Jesus Christ evidences a particular kind of unity — a oneness with the triune God and with one another. The Lord’s Supper — the covenant meal of God’s people — testifies to this. But participation in pagan rituals and their meals bears witness to a different oneness — a unity with idols — which means that it is a demonic unity. Why? Because, although idols are ostensibly made of wood or stone, they represent demons. Verse 20 says,
But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.
And please keep in mind that demons are not mere evil influences or manifestations of evil. They’re real creatures that are dedicated to the pursuit of wickedness. They oppose everything that’s holy and good.
As Christians, our fellowship is, first of all, with God himself. In worship Jesus presents himself to us primarily through the preaching of his Word. In the church’s public ministry, he speaks to us covenantally as his people. He comforts and strengthens us in the truth of the gospel. And when we celebrate the Supper, he’s the host, drawing us to himself in a different way. This is what he promised. Ezekiel 11:20 says,
That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
But we also have fellowship with one another. We enjoy the blessing of true spiritual oneness, which means that we, being one church and one body, love, serve and minister to each other. We all benefit from the gifts and talents with which the Lord has blessed each individual, as Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:16 —
From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.
The communion of saints is not just a doctrine that we profess; it’s a doctrine that we live.
In a sense, every temptation presents us with the same question found in this evening’s text: will we continue to enjoy fellowship with the Lord and one another through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, or will we pursue a different kind of fellowship, possibly one that involves demons? We have to ask ourselves, At whose table will we eat? Will we worship God or idols? Amen.