1 CORINTHIANS: Reclaiming the Lord’s Supper
Pastor Steven Osborne
Transcribed by PulpitAI (with edits)
Recap
Just to kind of recap and remind you, again—it’s been two months when we started our study in Corinthians. This is one of those early churches. It’s a church that was planted by Paul in Corinth. And this was an important city, and you had several cultures that influenced that area. You had Roman culture, you had Greek culture, and you obviously had Jewish culture. And so now you have Christian culture, and Paul is trying to teach them what it means to be the Church. So he was with them for about a year and a half, he left, and then he got a letter. There were some people in the congregation that emailed him and said, “Paul…”
What did I say? What? Email? Yeah, they emailed him. Why are you laughing? And then they used Twitter after that. Hey, stay with it, people.
So they emailed Paul—got there really quickly—and he was on it and responded, and they said, “Hey, there’s some division that is happening in the church, and you got to kind of sort this out.” And so this is that response to the church and as they’re dealing with different aspects.
A Message of Unity
Now again, this first part of chapter 11 I think is relevant to their culture. When you purchase a house, a lot of times people will say it is “location, location, location.” Right? And so, especially when we look at today’s chapter, it is about “context, context, context.” Okay? So do not just rip things out of context today and try and apply some of these things.
Now, this week, just kind of in my study—I know you’re eager to get into it. I want to just—an observation and something that came to mind for me. Now you—I’m not saying the Lord said, “so sayeth the Lord” type of deal—but something that just kind of hit me and that I was reflecting on, especially again with everything that is happening in our world and some of the political tension and things: the heart of this chapter, I think, is unity. Paul is trying to unite the church and to make sure that there’s not division in the church. And you’re gonna see that there’s all kinds of forces at work, and that is creating the exact opposite, and there is division happening. And so he’s calling them to love, and he’s calling them to unity. With all of these different cultures, that’s a big task. That’s not an easy job for a pastor in that role to say—you’ve got all of these variety of cultures; how do you now train a church to think biblical?
And in the same way, right, I think what is relevant for us today, as I was just pondering this chapter, then maybe for us as well, there is so many different things that we can get involved in and can grab our attention. A lot of times we’ll hear about “wokeness” or DEI, right, and different things. And a lot of stuff right now, where you are sitting, who of you can solve DEI? Who of you right now can solve wokeness in this world? I need a hand. Who’s gonna change the world? All right, thank you, Clay. Appreciate that. You got my vote for president. Okay, who’s gonna fix this? So a lot of times that can grab our attention, but we can’t even pay attention to what is happening to the stuff that actually matters, and that is to be united and to love God’s people. Can I hear an amen?
So again, you don’t have to agree with me, but why do we waste time? And again, I want to just admit, I want to be right up front with you to say, I love those political conversations, right? It is fun to have those stirrings and to talk about what the other political party is doing wrong or right, you know, or to argue with your neighbors or different things. I mean, there’s some excitement when it comes to politics for some of us. I’m a little wired in that way. But when it comes to being biblical, we are either biblical or we’re not. And so we’re gonna see what is biblical. And the heart is, again, is for us to be united and to love one another. This is key. Change and be in control of the stuff that we can actually be in control of. Don’t worry and lose sleep and energy of wokeness and DEI if you can’t fix anything. If you can fix it, fix it. But in the meantime, live out a godly life, and love people. Do the stuff that God has called you to do.
It’s gonna be a fun chapter. There’s some people online that already turned the computer off.
Main Passage
All right, 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 1. So let’s just read through it, and then we’ll highlight some of the verses.
Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.
I praise you for remembering me in everything and for holding to the traditions just as I passed them on to you. But I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head. But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head—it is the same as having her head shaved. For if a woman does not cover her head, she might as well have her hair cut off; but if it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, then she should cover her head.
There’s a lot of barber talk here, right?
A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man. For man did not come from woman, but woman from man; neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. It is for this reason that a woman ought to have authority over her own head, because of the angels. Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. For as woman came from man, so also man is born of woman. But everything comes from God.
Judge for yourselves: Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? Does not the very nature of things teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him…
(That’s why Christo cut his hair.)
… but that if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For long hair is given to her as a covering. If anyone wants to be contentious about this, we have no other practice—nor do the churches of God.
Verse 17:
In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval. So then, when you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, for when you are eating, some of you go ahead with your own private suppers. As a result, one person remains hungry and another gets drunk. Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God by humiliating those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? Certainly not in this matter!
For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night 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, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment. Nevertheless, when we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally condemned with the world.
So then, my brothers and sisters, when you gather to eat, you should all eat together. Anyone who is hungry should eat something at home, so that when you meet together it may not result in judgment.
And when I come I will give further directions.
It is ironic that we’re having Communion this morning and this chapter just fell on this. So, the Lord’s got something for us. Like I said, I’m excited for chapter 12 and 13. Really looking forward to those chapters. But we have chapter 11, so let’s look at some things here this morning.
A Godly Example
First of all, verse 1. There’s some controversy about verse 1, if that is in the right place. Some scholars say that that needed to be part of chapter 10. But it starts, verse 1:
Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.
What I love about this statement right here is that Paul is confident enough in his relationship with God that he’s saying, “I want to be an example for you. Follow me as an example.” I have shared with you many times and said, “We don’t look at people,” right? We don’t want to put pastors and people on pedestals because it’s probably not gonna be good, right? People will fail you. But we need examples. We need godly examples. And I love this confidence that Paul is saying, “Follow me,” right? “I’m gonna do my best to be a godly example to you.” And I think that’s a good invitation for us as well, right? It’s like, yes, you will fail. Nobody is perfect. Last night at the wedding, too, I shared with Mark and Holly, and I said, “You are a sinner, and you’re married to a sinner,” right? And that is the same thing for us as well. You are a sinner, and you are married to a sinner, right? And… I see some of the people are bumping their spouses, like— hey, that’s all of you, right? But we don’t want to lower our standards. We want to be that godly example in our communities and in our families.
When you look at 1 Timothy chapter 4—you can turn there if you want to, 1 Timothy chapter 4, I think it’s around verse 7 or 8—he writes to Timothy, and he’s kind of giving the same example. This was the passage I was sharing with the kids at Deep Freeze several weeks ago. And Paul is telling Timothy to say, he says, “You need to be an example. Don’t let people look down on you because of your age, but you be an example in your speech and in your actions.” Right? And so again, that call—if the church is not an example, then why will people be encouraged to follow Christ, right? We are that example. So just kind of an interesting way for him to start that.
Head Coverings
Now let’s get to the covering.
I praise you for remembering me in everything and for holding to the traditions just as I passed them on to you.
Now, when we pause here, I don’t know, I’m not exactly sure, because I’m getting different feedback from different scholars. There’s one group of scholars that say he is being sarcastic, and we have seen that tone before in those earliest chapters where Paul is kind of being sarcastic with them, and because they did not take his words to heart and they were kind of mocking him and his role. And so there’s one group of scholars that says he is mocking them, he’s being sarcastic here, and then there’s another group that says, no, he is actually praising them for holding on to some of the traditions.
So what are the traditions that he’s talking about here? Well, these are not new traditions that he’s bringing in, just like, oh, you’re gonna sing hymns or whatever, those type of traditions. He’s talking about those teachings that the apostles were teaching. So these are the traditions that he is talking about.
Verse 4:
Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head. But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head—it is the same as having her head shaved.
Now, I want to just kind of throw that whole piece together. And again, some things aren’t that clear. So really, I don’t have a lot of confidence this morning for you through all of my studies and research to say I know exactly all of these aspects what he’s talking about. And again, if you really want to study that chapter, go ahead, but look at several resources. Really do your homework in this area.
Now here’s the heart of I believe what he’s trying to communicate to the early Church. First of all, he’s talking about this headship and authority. Right? So he’s talking about kind of this natural order—again, if you believe certain scholars. And I do appreciate this approach where he’s talking about authority and [?]. So he’s talking about this natural order to say that there’s a natural order of authority. And so the way that he’s describing this is to say, in the same way as Jesus is submitting to the Father, right? And so that can kind of sound weird, “But I thought they’re equal.” Yes, they are equal, but even when you read the gospels, you see Jesus submitting to the Father, and he’s saying, “Hey, everything I’m doing and saying is because I’ve heard from the Father. I’m submitting.” Right? And so then the same way it’s saying, “Okay men, Jesus is the head of you.” And then he continues to say then, “Okay, the man is the head of women.”
Now, easy to abuse this passage and to use this out of context. And again, this is not about, “Okay, now all men are superior to women.” This is not the context here. And so he’s talking about that natural order and about who has some authority here.
And a big part here, as he’s addressing the women, to say—and again, we’re talking context in the Corinth church and the Corinth culture, because if you did not cover your head, you were probably a prostitute. And remember when we started to talk about this chapter in the beginning days, we realized that there’s this temple in Corinth with a thousand temple prostitutes? And so again, the culture was, most women, right—if you were married and if you’re trying to be godly and modest, you would cover your head. Not your face. So don’t think what you see in Islam. And so he’s creating to say, “Okay, there needs to be order in the church in the way that women will be prophesying.”
And then he’s talking to the men, and he says, “Why are you covering your head?” Right? “You’re stealing, in a sense then, the glory from the one that’s over you, and that’s Jesus.”
Now again, this can kind of all get messy. Believe me, I tried to study this, and I think it is so culturally relevant for that day and age that it is hard to pick out some principles here. But I do think some of the principles here for us this morning is to realize that there is a natural order of authority. There’s some people that is over us, and what do we do with that? How do we respect that, right? And again, in marriage, husband’s head of the family, and their wives.
And so when you look at the history on why men were covering their heads—again, this wasn’t a biblical thing. This was actually something cultural that was developing during that time, and where they were, “Okay, we’re gonna cover our heads out of respect.” And part of that came from the story of Moses, where Moses was covering himself when he was in the presence of God. The twisted lie, or maybe not the scriptural part of that, is that religious Jews are saying, “Okay, Moses covered himself out of respect.” But that wasn’t the case when you actually go and read the story of Moses, right? So nowhere in Scripture do you see this command that men have to cover their heads. What we do see in Scripture is that there’s a call—and again in the New Testament—to dress modestly, right, in worship. But there’s nothing about covering your head.
So all of that to just kind of say, it’s like, I think a lot of this piece is Paul is talking to that early church, and he’s trying to deal with the division that is happening, and he’s kind of sorting them out a little bit.
Proper Communion
Verse 17. So let’s jump to verse 17, because I think here’s some more of the relevant pieces for us as the church.
In the following directives I have no praise for you…
So in the beginning, he said, “Hey, I have praise for you.” Now he’s saying, “The way that you’re doing Communion is not right.” And it says,
… do more harm than good. In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you…
And you can highlight that because that is the core issue and why Paul is addressing some of the situations that is happening.
… and to some extent I believe it. No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval. So then, when you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, for when you are eating, some of you go ahead with your own private suppers. As a result, one person remains hungry and another [person] gets drunk.
So here’s the context. Back in that culture, they obviously did not meet in the same way that we’re meeting today. They met in homes. And before Communion, there was something—they’ll sometimes call that the agape meal. In a sense, think of a church potluck. Okay? And so here you have the church; they’re gathering, they’re eating, they’re fellowshipping, and then part of that evening or the activities, there was Communion. And so people would bring food and eat and share, but what was happening is that you had some rich people that had enough food; they would bring food, and they would stuff themselves, and they won’t share the food to some of those that are poor and could not afford a meal. And so you had slaves, and again, you had people that were poor, and so they were excited about this gathering. They were excited about this event because this might have been the best meal for them during that week or month—whatever gathering and however that looked. I don’t know if that was weekly or monthly. But this was an important time for them. This was an opportunity for them to get a good meal. And so here you had the church—some of them had the resources, had great meal. They had steak and lobster and good wine, and they would get drunk on this wine and would eat their food without sharing. And then to think, “Okay, now we’re gonna do Communion.” There was actually even some conversation and some commentaries to say that people were getting drunk on the Communion wine. So that’s a little crazy, kind of an interesting image, right? We don’t have wine here this morning in your cups, but imagine somebody’s running off here with the Communion cup, and if that was full of wine, and ran off and said, “Okay, we’re gonna eat the whole bread and drink the whole cup.” So that was kind of some of the stuff that was happening.
And so Paul is obviously addressing it and to say, “Don’t you realize that this is the Lord’s Supper? Don’t you understand the weight behind that, and how important and how sacred that is?”
Verse 23. Now he’s gonna go into explaining again that evening that Jesus was betrayed, and that evening that Jesus shared Communion with his disciples.
For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night 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.”
Now today, as we get ready to come to the Lord’s table again, when we celebrate Communion—this is one of the traditions in the Church that we have that help us to remember. It reminds us of the passion and the love of Jesus Christ, what he did on the cross for us. That is why we do this. For us in our church, and probably in most Covenant churches and Protestant churches, a lot of it is, we do this monthly. We don’t have specifics. We don’t have a word that says, “Okay, it’s got to be every Sunday. It’s got to be every first Sunday of the month.” We just don’t know. But at least for us, it’s once a month, first Sunday of the month, we come together. And why we come to the Lord’s table is: we remember on what Jesus Christ did for us. And it reminds us of his body that was broken for us on that cross.
The New Covenant
Now this says:
“[The] cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
In the same way, when we think about that cup and the blood and the new covenant, let me ask you this morning—so I kind of took some time to just kind of think through about the new covenant. If we have a quiz here this morning, what does the new covenant mean to you? Because if you don’t know what the new covenant means, then you’re not gonna appreciate that cup this morning. So it’s important for us to understand the new covenant. Anybody willing to come and preach? I can cheat; I have my notes here this morning, so I did my homework, but anybody willing to come?
So just listen to this. I kind of have here the difference between the old covenant and the new covenant. So that’s what we get to celebrate this morning. I’ll go quick.
Mediator in the old covenant was Moses. New covenant, it is Jesus Christ. Who likes Jesus more than Moses? Okay.
Old covenant: It was based on the Law. Who likes the Law? New covenant: It’s based on grace and faith. Who likes grace and faith?
Old Testament: it was written on stone tablets. New covenant is written on our hearts.
The sacrifice: repeated animal sacrifices. I don’t know if any of you would like to see us kill cows and goats and stuff right now, right? That was kind of the animal sacrifices. New covenant: Once and for all. Jesus was that ultimate sacrifice.
Old covenant: High Priest, Aaron and the Levites. New covenant: Jesus is our eternal High Priest.
Access to God: They only had access to God through priests and the sacrifices. New covenant: Direct access through Christ. Who’s excited about that?
Forgiveness: Temporary, required continual sacrifices. New covenant: Permanent, complete in Christ.
Holy Spirit: Came upon select individuals for specific tasks. New covenant: Indwells all believers permanently.
Righteousness: Based on obedience to the Law. New covenant: Imputed through faith in Christ.
Old covenant: Conditional. If you obey, you will be blessed. New covenant: Unconditional, based on Christ’s work.
Temple: Physical temple in Jerusalem. New covenant: Believers are the temple of God.
Finally, condemnation due to inability to keep the law. Justification through faith in Christ.
Do you get a little bit of a glimpse this morning on the joy that we get to experience this morning when we come to the Lord’s table and what the new covenant actually means for us? I think that there’s many of us—and sometimes I’m guilty of this as well—that I forget about the benefits of the new covenant. Even when we just think it’s like, when we don’t realize this, we try to earn God’s favor instead of living in grace. Or holding on to guilt and shame instead of living in freedom. Living as spiritual orphans instead of enjoying direct access to God. Treating the Holy Spirit as optional instead of essential. Focusing on rules instead of relationship. Neglecting the church instead of embracing the gospel community.
Are You In Unity?
I’m wrapping up. I thought, “Man we’re gonna have a lot of time this morning.”
I want to continue just on—let’s do verse 27.
So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves.
Now again, we can—couple of views on this. I do think that we need to prepare our hearts and that we do need to discern. Right? It is a big deal to come to the Lord’s table. Now, when we think about the work of Jesus Christ on the cross—he did all the work, amen? It’s done. So we can’t say that on the one end and then maybe bring some of those pieces back on the other end when we look at this. So what is he trying to say?
Now some scholars are saying that he is talking about actually—and I don’t know that I agree with this. I don’t agree, but I could be wrong. You can go and study it and you can come and help me and correct me. Some scholars are saying it’s because they are getting drunk and the way that they’re eating, that they’re actually getting sick and some are dying in a sense then of alcohol poison.
Now, I don’t know that I agree with that. I think that there is a certain judgment—again, when we look at culturally what is happening for them as a church—that God is judging and to say, “You are not evaluating. You’re not doing that care and to check your heart,” and there was a certain judgment that happened.
But again, the key piece here is unity. And because again, it’s like, how far back do you look? I mean, every time that you come on a Sunday morning and now you have to evaluate your heart, like, how far back do you go? And where is the cross enough? Right? And so it’s like, I’m not gonna go back months and years, but it’s to say in this moment, when we look at our hearts right now, when you’ve prepared your heart this morning, are you on a good place? Are you in unity? Right? Is there deceit? Is there some things, really significant stuff, that you got to sort out in this moment in your heart before you come to the Lord’s table? And then to bring that to the Lord and sort that out. Instead, maybe do not partake this morning.
So I think that is what he is speaking to us this morning. I am just encouraged with Paul, and just like, with all of this conflict and the challenges that is happening and all of the cultural challenges that is happening in their community, how Paul is teaching them, this church, and he’s showing them, and in a way, when he’s saying:
Nevertheless, when we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally condemned with the world.
What is he saying? He said, “Hey if somebody is correcting you…” He’s not talking here about God judging somebody. He’s just saying, “Who is correcting you? And the reason why they’re correcting you is they want to kind of get you on the right path again.” And so in the same way, Paul is kind of correcting them here in this moment to say, “You guys are doing things the wrong way.”
And I want to just remind you this morning that church, what we have here, the gathering of God’s people, of the church. And again, this is just a building. The Holy Spirit is in us. And like I said, is there unity? Do we really care for one another? Do we love one another? At the end of the day, this is a key piece of being a healthy church, right? And to every time that, when we’re coming to this table, man, that we are in awe, that we get to celebrate, and we are reminded of what Jesus did, and then to say, “Woo-hoo! I have the new covenant!” Amen? Let’s pray.
