Communion: A Memorial Meal (1 Corinthians 11:18-34) | Worship Service

Psalm 103 and the Call to Worship

Well, good morning and welcome to Kootenai Church today. Would you please stand with us as we begin our worship service this morning with a call to worship from Psalm 103. And it says in verses eight to 12, Yahweh is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness.

He will not always contend with us and he will not keep his anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins and he has not rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his loving kindness toward those who fear him.

As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. This passage speaks of God's unending mercy and love, reminding us of the forgiveness we receive through his grace.

So let's sing together, Jesus, your mercy.

Jesus, your mercy is all my fee. I have no defense, my guilt runs too deep. The best of my works pierce your hands and your feet. Jesus, your mercy is all my. Jesus, your mercy is all my. Most the goodness I claim the grounds of my home.

Whatever I lack, it's still what I need most. Jesus, your mercy is all my. Praise the king, took my place when I stood condemned.

Oh, how good.

Jesus, your mercy is all my. Fears weigh me down and in a meeting too in life and in death. Jesus, your mercy is all my rest. Praise the king who bore my sin, took my place when I stood condemned. Oh, how good you've always been to me.

I'll sing of your mercy. It's all my joy forever. I'll lift my heart and my voice to sing of a treasure no power can destroy. Jesus, your mercy is all my. I stood condemned. You all will sing of your mercy.

Our sin, we were guilty and undone. When your love reached out with sovereign hands and beckoned us to come, you sought out the one. May the prodigals come home with a lavish feast. You will assure of your son.

Your children made us your own. We are strangers to the world, but no strangers to your throne. We draw near you now with confidence. For our God, a sparking returns. We'll meet saints we've never known.

And forever you made us your own. Your son, your children, love your son by his blood. Would wisdom once devise a plan where all our sin and pride was placed upon the perfect lamb who suffered, bled, and died?

The wisdom of a sovereign God whose greatness will be shown. When those who crucify your son rejoice around your throne. Send your son forth that I might come to know. Righteousness was there revealed that sets the guilty free.

That justifies ungodly men and calls a filthy glee. Oh, righteousness that proved to all your justice has been met. And holy wrath is satisfied through one atoning death. But send your son for us has been proclaimed.

For those who would be sensible, our minds could not conceive. A mercy that forgives my sin and makes me like your son because of what you've done. But send your son forth. But send your son forth.

Announcements and Upcoming Fellowship Events

I would just point you to a couple of announcements that are in your bulletin. One about fellowship dinners coming up this next round of fellowship dinners. So if you would like to participate in that, make sure you take note of the instructions there in your bulletin and avail yourself of that.

And then also in a couple of weeks, we have the barbecue coming up after the service, after the baptism service. The baptism service two weeks from today and then following that service that afternoon, the barbecue.

And there's details there if you'd like to register for that. Typically we don't charge for potlucks, but this one is a smoked tri-tip that we're going to be having that afternoon. So that's why we just ask everybody to pitch in five bucks a piece if you plan on attending that and being part of that.

The Last Supper in Luke 22

Will you please turn your Bibles to the gospel of Luke, to the 22nd chapter of Luke. Luke chapter 22, we're going to begin reading at verse 7, and we'll read through the end of verse 23. Luke 22, beginning at verse 7, then came the first day of unleavened bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed.

And Jesus sent Peter and John saying, go and prepare the Passover for us so that we may eat it. They said to him, where do you want us to prepare it? And he said to them, when you have entered the city, a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water.

Follow him into the house that he enters. And you shall say to the owner of the house, the teacher says to you, where is your guest room in which I may eat the Passover with my disciples? And he will show you a large furnished upper room, prepare it there.

And they left and found everything just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover. When the hour had come, he reclined at the table and the apostles with him. And he said to them, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.

For I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And when he had taken a cup and given thanks, he said, take this and share it among yourselves. For I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes.

And when he had taken some bread and given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them saying, this is my body which is given for you, do this in remembrance of me. And in the same way, he took the cup after they had eaten saying, this cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

But behold, the hand of the one betraying me is with mine on the table. For indeed, the son of man is going as it has been determined, the woe to that man by whom he has betrayed. And they began to discuss among themselves which one of them it might be who was going to do this thing.

Prayer for Worship and Reflection on Christ's Sacrifice

Will you stand with me as we pray? Let's bow our heads. Our father, we give this time today to reflect upon the sacrificial death of your son and the wondrous salvation that has been wrought on behalf of guilty sinners because of what he has done in our place.

And we reflect upon that sacrifice and the elements of it and the significance and symbolism of those elements. We are grateful that though we deserve nothing but your wrath, your eternal wrath for even the least of our sins, that in spite of the depth and the gravity of our sin, the multitude of them, the various ways in which we have sinned against you, that infinite wrath that we deserve, we thank you that you have paid the price through your son's sacrifice on the cross to satisfy your wrath toward those who have believed.

And we pray that our thoughts and our minds and our hearts may be profoundly affected by that reality. We pray that our minds may meditate upon that great truth today and that you would be honored through our worship.

Thank you for paying that debt. Thank you for canceling it against us, not just by ignoring our sin, but by paying the just penalty for it. And we thank you that you sent your son to die in our stead and in our place that we may have life.

We thank you, Lord Jesus, for your sacrifice for us on the cross, for bearing our guilt, for standing in our place, for representing us in your holy and perfect life, and then for standing in our place and representing us in your sacrificial, voluntary, and propitiatory death on the cross for our sin.

And we thank you, Spirit of God, for regenerating our hearts and opening our eyes to that. And our blessed triune God, we thank you for including us in the number of those who have been saved by that sacrifice and will be everlastingly.

May it be for us a source of joy, gratitude, and holy living for the glory of Christ our King, in whose name we pray.

Amen.

Let's sing, I will sing of my Redeemer. And His wondrous love to me. On the cruel cross He suffered. From the curse to set me free. Sing, oh sing, of my Redeemer. With His blood to speed. On the cross, my heart will tell the wondrous story.

To save, to save His love and mercy. He the wrath. Sing, oh sing, of my Redeemer. With His blood to speed. He healed my poised mind.

Of the victory.

Oh sing, of my Redeemer.

In Isaiah chapter 53, verses 4 to 6. Surely our griefs He Himself bore and our sorrows He carried. Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions.

He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening of our peace fell upon Him. And by His wounds we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to His own way. But Yahweh has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.

Let's sing together, my Savior's love.

What tongue could tell my Savior's love? What song of angels could describe? Could endless praises be enough to echo full His sacrifice? How worthy is the Lamb of God. Beyond all mine or still of pen.

Still we confess and strain towards such mystery and magnificence. My Savior's love, my Savior's love. Could compare what tongue could tell my Savior's love. Could carry on its wings the beauty of that final breath.

What words dare paint the awesome scene. When God stood in the stead of man. When Jesus Christ, the radiant One. Took on the shadows of our hate. Then rose again just as the sun. With light and power and fullness great.

My Savior's love could tell my Savior's love. But still my song of life has reached the end. Though as a flower I may wilt. This everlasting truth will stand. No death or life could separate me from the love of Christ my Lord.

This hope is sure from age to age. My song will be forevermore.

I say. Could tell.

I say. I say.

Opening Prayer Before the Sermon on Communion

All right, I'll ask you to bow your heads with me as we open our time of study and prayer. Our Father, we are thankful for the mercy of Your Word. For what it reveals to us. The truth that it tells us regarding the sacrifice of our Savior.

His love for us. And our eventual resurrection and union with Him in eternal glory. It is that hope that must occupy our hearts and our minds as we reflect upon what He has done for us. For it is all connected.

Those whom the Son has died for and purchased. Those are the same ones that you bring to eternal life. They are the same that you secure everlastingly to eternal glory. And we ask that our time here in Your Word today may thrill our hearts as we reflect upon the sacrifice of Christ.

Remind us again of our sin, our unworthiness, and of the great grace and love of Christ our Lord in whose name we pray.

Amen.

Why Baptism and Communion Seem Strange

Sometimes what is done in religious circles as part of religious services and rites can be very confusing for those who are on the outside. It can be very odd looking. And that is certainly true with the two ordinances that the Lord has given to His church, baptism and communion or the Lord's Supper.

You think about how odd it is just to observe a baptism service if you are not familiar with the symbolism or the substance of what is being portrayed there. If you just came from another world and you showed up on this world and someone were to invite you to church here and you came here on a baptism Sunday and saw what we do, you would think, okay, so here's a group of people that once somebody is convinced to think the way that they think and believe the way that they believe, once they acquire a convert, they dip them in water?

That seems odd, doesn't it? Shave their head, purple robe, what else do they give them as part of that conversion ritual? It would just seem odd. But for those of us who are on the inside of that, who have seen it and heard it explained and we understand it, it's part of our life, it's part of our tradition and our upbringing, it's not as odd because the symbolism, the substance of baptism is not lost on us.

But then communion. So then we gather together without anybody present and we recite His words while we eat bread and drink juice or wine, depending on where you're at, and we say, this is my body, do this in remembrance of me, and then we eat that.

And then we say, this is the blood of the new covenant, do this in remembrance of me, and we drink that. That seems like a very odd ritual. And with both communion and baptism, the significance of it, the symbolism of them, the meaning of them can be lost on those who are not part of the group, as it were.

And it's not just possible to be lost on those on the outside, it's also possible for Christians, well-meaning believers, to be uninformed regarding the meaning and significance of those events and what they really portray.

Having finished Hebrews, I have an opportunity to preach a few messages here before we start our next series. And this is one that I wanted to revisit. I preached this several years ago. In fact, this morning I was thinking, when was the last time I preached?

And we spent a whole Sunday just on communion. And I remember, for those of you who were here back then, this would be the OG group. It was when we were in the school cafeteria and we were facing the wide wall and not the narrow wall because we switched directions, you remember that?

And that was before we took a year off to leave the school while they were doing some renovations. So this would have been 2010 or earlier was the last time we spent a whole Sunday just talking about communion.

Now, it falls to us every month when we celebrate communion for me to remind us of the significance of it. We talk about the symbolism of it. There's a warning that accompanies partaking of communion.

But it's also good to spend a little bit of time, at least I think an entire service, at least probably every couple of years. And I think I'm going to do this more often since we grow. And then you look at how many people were here since the beginning of Hebrews.

It makes me realize I can never assume that everybody here understands everything that we're doing. So it'll fall to me to be a little bit more diligent in talking about communion at some greater length, more often than just once every 15 years.

Some of you have been taking communion for years. You grew up in a church. You understand the symbolism of it. You understand the significance of it. Nothing is lost on you. However, others may not have any understanding about it.

There may be others here who have seen it done once in a while. Maybe you went to a church. They never explained the significance of it. I've had people attend here who hear us do communion, and they hear the warning that I give about partaking in an unworthy manner.

And they have said to me, the previous churches that we were in never warned us about partaking of communion in an unworthy manner. They never issued any kind of a stern warning about what that involves and never explained it.

Because every time we got together and sort of felt religious emotions, we partook of communion, which is part of the service. And it would symbolize this one week and this thing the next week. Maybe some of you come from a church background like that.

Or maybe some of you are familiar with the Catholic Mass because you spent years going to Catholic Mass. And then you come to a service like this, and you see us Protestants do what we do. And you think, okay, the Protestants have just removed all the smells and bells from the ceremony.

And they do it, but it's just kind of a bone-down thing because they have less time to do it. And they don't like to kneel down, stand up, kneel down, stand up. Protestants don't like to exercise that much.

So maybe that's how you do communion. And so you've just kind of done your own little twist on it without even really thinking about why it is that we do what we do and the significance of it. So today we're going to turn to 1 Corinthians 11.

And we're going to spend this entire time talking about communion, what it is. The title communion or the word communion is how we most often refer to this ordinance. Communion simply means participation in something that is common to all.

It describes something that involves a mutual participation or a mutual sharing in something that is common. Communion is from the Latin communis, com meaning with or together, and unis meaning oneness or union.

And as believers, we have a participation when we partake of communion in something that we all share. We all have an equal place at the Lord's table. And so we commune or we come together and participate together in the same thing all as God's people.

This is also called the Lord's table or sometimes just the table. That comes from 1 Corinthians 10, verse 21. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.

So this communion is sometimes referred to as the table of the Lord. It is sometimes referred to as the Lord's supper. That comes from the reference in 1 Corinthians 11. Since you're there, you can look at verse 20.

Therefore, when you meet together, it is not to eat the Lord's supper. And then from there, he gives instructions on the Lord's supper and the rest of a good portion of that chapter. Less commonly, and I think especially in our circles, it is referred to as the Eucharist.

That is a transliteration of the Greek word eucharisteo, which means to give thanks. It's the word that Luke uses in his account of the Lord's supper on the final night of our Lord's life in Luke 22, 19.

And when he had taken some bread and given thanks, that's the word. He gave thanks. He broke it and gave it to them saying, this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. So it's referred to as the Eucharist.

The Eucharist is kind of more tied to the Roman Catholic view or the mass of things. It's less frequently used, especially by us in our theological circles. Communion is one of two ordinances that is given to the church, the other being baptism, which we'll recognize and celebrate here in a couple of weeks.

We don't recognize marriage as an ordinance or last rites or any of the stuff that typically is referred to as sacraments or ordinances by the Roman Catholic Church. We recognize those things that were ordained or commanded by Christ, which is the Lord's supper and baptism.

And then we observe those two things because we see them modeled and observed in the New Testament. So we have examples of people doing those two things. And then we have instructions on those two things in the New Testament.

So the Lord ordained it. We see it done in the New Testament time and then we have instructions on it. This is why we don't do foot washing as an ordinance where we sit around and wash each other's feet on a Sunday morning.

There are churches that do that. We don't believe that that is an ordinance that the Lord commanded us, though He did that. He didn't command it to be done. We don't see it done anywhere else in the New Testament and there's no instructions about the symbolism of it or even why we should be doing it or how it should be done.

So we don't observe that. We observe these two, communion and baptism. Now in the Corinthian church, as with nearly everything else they did, what they practiced was corrupted and sinful, characterized by selfishness and pride and division.

And so Paul in 1 Corinthians 11 is taking aim at correcting some things that had gone horribly wrong in the Corinthians' observance of communion. And as a result, we get some great instruction in this passage about what communion is and the significance of it and how it is to be done.

And this makes me grateful, by the way, for the Corinthians' complete debacle. If anything good came out of that, it was the fact that the apostle took a good portion of a chapter to really address the significance.

And if it weren't for that, if it weren't for 1 Corinthians, just imagine how depleted our knowledge of what a communion service really looked like in the first century would be. We get a tremendous amount here and we're going to tackle the entire passage in one Sunday.

And you know that this is more text than you are accustomed to receiving on a typical Sunday morning. We are going to go through verses 18 through 34, 3, whatever it is, almost the end of the show, 32.

18 through, what'd I say, 18 through 32. That's the passage we're going to cover this morning. We're going to notice four features. First, in verses 18 to 22, Paul offers correction for their problems, the problems with their communion.

And then second, he gives a pattern for them to follow in verses 23 to 25. Third, he shows them the purpose for communion, or you could actually say the picture, what it is that communion pictures or portrays in verse 26.

And then finally, he commends some prudence before they proceed with it, verses 27 to 34. And when you have a good outline and it is alliterated like that, you have to recognize it and give props to whoever came up with that.

And I think that was me because I don't remember getting that from anywhere else. So verses first, beginning with the problems, the problems with their communion, then the pattern, then the purpose, and finally the prudence.

Let's look at the problems beginning in verse 18. We'll read together verses 18 to 22, and then we'll back up and kind of walk our way through the passage. Verse 18, for in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that divisions exist among you.

And in part, I believe it. There must also be factions among you so that those who are approved may become evident among you. Therefore, when you meet together, it's not to eat the Lord's supper, for in your eating, each one takes his own supper first, and one is hungry and another is drunk.

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? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this, I will not praise you.

Now, there's some indications there of what an early communion service in the first century would have looked like. It involved a meal. In fact, later on in the New Testament, Jude chapter 12, it is referred to as a love feast.

They would come together, and it would basically be like a potluck, and the closest thing that we have to doing this in our congregation is on our annual meeting Sunday, where after our service, we break down, we set up tables, we enjoy a potluck together, and then we partake of communion as we discuss church business.

That's probably most akin to what an early communion service in the first century would have looked like. They had a love meal where they would bring together their food, they would eat, and they would share that, and then they would fellowship together and then partake of communion together as part of that feast, and they called it a love feast.

In fact, Jude chapter 12 describes false teachers, and he talks about those who were hidden reefs in your love feast when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves, clouds without water, carried along by winds, autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead and uprooted.

This is a scathing rebuke of false teachers. The false teachers came in, and they were enjoying communion amongst the people of God, and there Jude refers to them as a love feast. The term love feast seems like an odd way to describe what was going on in Corinth because the problems that existed are described in verse 18.

When you come together as a church, I hear that divisions exist among you, and in part I believe that there must also be factions among you so that those who are approved may become evident among you.

In other words, there's these factions and divisions in the church, and this manifested itself in all kinds of different ways. You hear about this throughout the epistle, actually. In 1 Corinthians chapter 1, in verse 10, Paul says, I exhort you, brethren, by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that you agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment.

For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe's people, that there are quarrels among you, divisions, factions, and quarrels. In fact, some were saying, we find out in chapter 1, some were saying, I'm a Paul's faction.

I belong to the Pauline group, and others were saying, I belong to the Apolline group, Apollos' sect. And I belong to Barnabas, and I belong to Silas. They were dividing themselves up amongst who had baptized them and who had been their teachers, who had discipled them, who had led them to the Lord.

And almost everything became not only an excuse for division in the church, but also an opportunity to display that division. So you have in chapter 6, them going to court against one another. You have them abusing their liberty without considering one another in chapters 8 and 9.

They have the misuse of spiritual gifts, which they stood up, and the most prominent gifts were displayed, and people oohed and awed over the public demonstration of the gifts, and they were trying to one-up one another so that the most spiritual with the most dramatic and sensational gift would have preeminence among them.

This was what was going on inside of the church. And then you have the lack of love critiqued in chapter 13, where Paul describes what real love would look like, and it would have put to rest all of the divisions and schisms and factions within the church.

Well, here in chapter 11, their division was made evident at the Lord's Supper. Look at the rebuke in verses 20 and 22. Therefore, when you meet together, it's not to eat the Lord's Supper. I mean, that's harsh.

Here's what Paul is saying. Call it what you want, but don't call it the Lord's Supper. Because when you get together, what you're doing, you have the juice there, the wine. You have the bread there. You say the words.

You do the thing. You have the feast. Yes. I have all the symbolism. You have all of the ritual and the rote. But don't call it the Lord's Supper because when you come together, it's really your supper.

You each have a meal, and you bring your food there, and then you hoard it to yourselves so that after this whole shindig is done, some of you go away glutted, just stuffed to the gills with all the food you brought.

Meanwhile, your brother in Christ goes away without anything. The divisions were so severe that they wouldn't even bother caring about one another. Look at verse 21. In your eating, each one takes his own supper first, and one is hungry and another is drunk.

So with both the bread and the wine of that feast, they were glutting themselves to the point where one would walk away absolutely filled, and one would walk away having had nothing. One would walk away drunk, and another didn't even have the opportunity to partake of the juice.

They would grab their own food, clamor for the best of the meal. One person leaves gorged. Another person leaves starving. So he says in verse 22, don't you have houses in which to eat or drink? Notice the brutal sarcasm.

Do you need to come here to do that? Do you need to go to church to do that? Do you have such contempt for the Lord's house, for the Lord's people, and for this ordinance, that if you want to just glut yourself and get drunk, you can't do that in your own home?

Now, don't misunderstand this. Paul's not commending getting drunk at home. He's exaggerating something for an effect. Do you show such contempt for the Lord's people that you despise the church of God?

Verse 22, do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? It's like you wake up on Sunday morning, the Lord's day, and think to yourself, man, I can't wait to get to church today so that I can walk in with my ribeye and I can sit down in the midst of all those people and glut my entire family on the ribeye while the person next to me who can't even afford a ham sandwich or an egg walks away with nothing.

And I'm just looking for the opportunity to twist the knife in that person's side, to get at them and to demonstrate just how much I have and just what I can afford so that me might have the preeminence amongst all the people and it would belong to me.

People see I have the best wine, the best meat. Do you despise the church of God? Don't you have houses in which to do that very thing? See, communion speaks of the unity that we share, the unity that we have, and the union that exists among the people of God.

And they took that ordinance, which really portrays our common union, our communion, they took that ordinance and used it as an opportunity to display their divisiveness, their schisms, and their factions that existed among them.

What a profaning of the Lord's Supper that was. We have a union and a unity because we have been purchased by one blood through one Savior's one sacrifice. The breaking of that one body and that one sacrifice has purchased His people forever.

So that all the divides and distinctions that would normally exist in an eclectic blend of people like this, all of them mean nothing. So that in the church of Christ, it does not matter what your skin color is, how much melanin you have, whether you're darker or whether you're lighter.

It doesn't matter how much money you have, whether you're richer, whether you're poorer, whether you're royalty or whether you're a pauper, whether you are slave or whether you are free. It doesn't matter what your status is in life, upper class, lower class, middle class.

It doesn't matter whether you are a Jew or you are a Gentile. None of those things matter in terms of salvation and that sacrifice. Nobody can say, I was redeemed by this sacrifice and you were redeemed by that sacrifice.

There's no redemption outside of the one sacrifice. So when all of God's people come together and we remember and reflect upon that one sacrifice and partake together commonly the one elements that symbolize that sacrifice, we are declaring to the world that those distinctions mean nothing.

That is why, just as an aside briefly, that is why all of the woke mind virus that seeks to divide the people of God in terms of their ethnicity into black church and white church and this racism and that racism, this ethnicity and that ethnicity, all of that is anathema to God.

All of that problem that our society is dealing with is dealt with at this table. You understand what's going on at this table? The black man and the white man walk up and they partake of the same cup because they're redeemed by the same sacrifice.

Their skin color doesn't matter. Their ethnicity doesn't matter. Their culture doesn't matter. Their upbringing doesn't matter. Their wealth, their poverty doesn't matter. Their status in life, upper class, lower class.

President of the United States and the homeless man on the street, if they are to be saved, they are to be saved by the same sacrifice and they come to the same table. So as often as we partake of this, we are reminded once again, there is a union that the death of Christ has purchased that the world in all of their pagan wisdom can never understand or implement.

There is a union that we enjoy that those who are outside of that sacrifice can never understand. They can never duplicate that. 1 Corinthians 10, 16 and 17 says, Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the body of Christ?

Listen to the language of sharing and mutual participation. Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body and we partake of the one bread.

And here the Corinthians had turned that service into a display of their contempt for one another. So Paul says, you deserve no praise for this. Should I praise you because of this? You get together and you go through the ritual.

But Christ isn't there. Don't call it the Lord's Supper. Call it your supper. That would be more appropriate. Now I don't say that in a reproving or rebuking tone. I might sound, let me back up. That might sound reproving and rebuking because I think that's the tone in which Paul means it.

But I'm not saying that in a reproving or rebuking tone toward you. I want you to understand that. Because I just realized, man, what you just sounded like. That was harsh. It is harsh if you're a Corinthian.

The Pattern of the Lord's Supper as a Divine Institution

But if you're a Kootenaian, it's not as harsh. So don't worry about it. Second, he gives them the pattern to follow, verses 23 to 25. 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, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me. 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. It is important to recognize that communion is of divine origin.

It is a divine institution. Paul didn't invent this. The apostles didn't invent this. The pope didn't invent this. Nobody in the history of the Christian church invented this. This was given to us by the Lord himself.

And Paul uses there the language of passing along a tradition. What I received, I delivered. This is sort of rabbinic language for I'm passing on to you what I have myself received, indicating, I think, one of two things, either that Paul got this directly from the Lord himself by divine revelation, or most likely, I think, that this was something that he recognized as an apostle coming into the church later than the other apostles, that this was a tradition that goes back to the Lord himself.