Communion or Condemnation?

Date: 21 Sep 2025, 9.30 am

Speaker: Ps Luwin Wong  Sermon Text: 1 Corinthians 11:17-34

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TRANSCRIPT Alright. Pop Quiz!

Complete the sentence: “The Son of Man came ______________”

It’s in the Bible. We should know this. I’ll just give us a moment to think.

The New Testament completes the sentence in 3 ways. Let’s see if you got any of them, or better yet, all of them.

“…not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many”. (Mark 10:45)

“…to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).

You get bonus points if you get this one

“…came eating and drinking . . .” (Matt 11:19; Luke 7:34)

We can put it this way: The Son of man came to give his life as a ransom for many, he came to seek and save the lost. Therefore, the Son of man came eating and drinking.

You see, we always say that Christianity is not religion. It’s a relationship, right?

In other words, Christianity is not about observing new rituals or obeying new rules, it’s about opening our hearts to a new relationship.

And what better way to do that than through a meal?

Our most significant moments in life, with the most significant people in our lives, are oriented around a meal.

When we want to get to know a person better on a first date, it’s often times a meal.

When a family reunites in anticipation of a new year, we have a reunion dinner.

We celebrate Christmas, by going to church, but also with a Christmas meal.

When we get married, we have a wedding banquet.

When the early settlers in the New Land wanted to thank the natives for helping them, they hosted a Thanksgiving meal.

On these significant life occasions, there is a meal, and the people present are those who are a part of us, people whom we love, our family and our friends.

Because meals are more than food. They’re social occasions. They represent friendship, community, and welcome.

Meals are a symbol of relationship. It means we have fellowship. It means we belong.

So a church meal isn’t just about food and drink, it’s about relationships as well. It’s not just about filling our tummies with chicken, rice and cucumber, it’s about filling our hearts with love for one another.

And the most important Christian meal in the Church is of course the Lord’s Supper. Its meaning transcends mere food and drink. It is a symbol of relationship.

A sign of belonging. And it matters how we partake of it.

Like at a birthday meal if eat the cake before the candle is blown, or at a reunion dinner if you begin to eat before the elders have arrived, or at a wedding banquet if you finish the champagne before the yam-seng, it is possible to eat the Lord’s Supper wrongly. It is possible to get it wrong, like the Corinthians did.

So Paul does not commend them, he condemns the manner in which they took the Lord’s Supper. They are doing it wrong.

This is our first point: The Sin against the Lord’s Supper.

He writes:

1 CORINTHIANS 11:17-18, 20 17 But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. 18 For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. 20 When you come together, it is not the Lord's supper that you eat.

He says it three times: “when you come together… when you come together… when you come together…”

Which gives us a clue about where he’s going with this. The point of the meal is about coming together.

But he condemns them, saying: When you come together, it is not for the better but for the worse. When you come together, you are not together, there are divisions among you. When you come together, it is therefore not the Lord’s Supper that you eat.

Why? Because you are not eating together.

1 CORINTHIANS 11:21-22 21 For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. 22 What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not.

There is no such thing as a middle class in the first century, you are either a rich landowner or a poor labourer. Either an aristocrat who has no need to work at all or a commoner who needs to work from dawn to dusk.

And this is what is happening.

The rich have no work to do, so they gather early, say, after lunch, about 2-3pm in the afternoon, and they bring their food and drink, and at about 5-6pm they begin to feel a little peckish. So one of them tears off some bread, another sees it and picks off some grapes, and another pours himself a bit of wine. And before you know it, it’s turned into a full-fledged feast.

And then sun sets at about 7pm, which is the cue for the day labourers to down their tools for the day. And then they make their way, on foot, to the place where the church had arranged to come together for a fellowship meal, and to partake of the Lord’s Supper. And lo and behold, when the poor labourers arrive, they find that all that’s left on the table are breadcrumbs and fishbones and empty bottles of wine, perhaps with some leftovers tucked away at the side for “the Lord’s Supper”.

And their rich fellow believers are full and drunk, some in a food coma.

And Paul says, that’s not the way.

Whatever this is, it isn’t the Lord’s Supper. It isn’t Holy Communion, because when you come together, you are not together. The church is divided into rich and poor, the full and hungry.

And he asks the rich:

22 What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing?

If your aim is to fill your belly, then do it at home. In church, when the people of God gather, you can’t just care about your tummy, you have care about unity. It must be about others. It must be about relationships. It is communion with Christ, the head, as well as his body.

When the Corinthian church came together, they are not truly together. There are divisions and factions among them. So Paul writes,

What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not.

This, therefore, is the Sin against the Lord’s Supper. The Church is not together, they are not united, they are not looking out for one another.

And Paul says this is big deal. He makes it into an issue of authentic Christianity. He attaches salvific significance to their disunity.

1 CORINTHIANS 11:18b-19 18b And I believe it in part, 19 for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized.

The true believers of Christ would honor the unity of the body of Christ at the Lord’s table.

Why? Because of what the meal means. Which brings us to our second point.

The Significance of the Lord’s Supper.

1 CORINTHIANS 11:23-26 23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 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.” 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying,  “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

I will detail the significance of the Lord’s Supper under 4 headings: 1. The Presence of Christ in the Lord’s Supper 2. The Administration of the Lord’s Supper 3. The Elements of the Lord’s Supper: The Bread and The Cup 4. The Benefits of the Lord’s Supper for the Believer.

It will be more doctrinal than usual, but such is the nature of the matter at hand, so do bear with me.

We begin with perhaps the most contentious issue: the relationship between the elements and the presence of Christ.

What is clear is that there exists a relationship between the elements and Christ.

1 CORINTHIANS 11:23-24, 10:16-17“ This is my body, which is for you.“ This cup is the new covenant in my blood.”

1 CORINTHIANS 11:16 ¹⁶ The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?

The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?

The bread is in some way related to the body of Christ. The cup is in some way related to the blood of Christ.

That much is clear. The question is, “In what way?”

In what sense is the bread the body of Christ and the wine the blood of Christ?

What is the relationship between the elements and the presence?

There are four differing answers to this question.

1. ROMAN CATHOLICISM = TRANSUBSTANTIATION = CHANGE TO ELEMENTS

Transformation of the bread and wine into the actual flesh and blood of Christ.

Which is why if you attend a Catholic Mass, they won’t offer you the cup, only the bread. The reasoning is that there is blood in each piece of flesh.

I have my doubts, but I don’t know enough of biology to refute that claim. Anyhow, that’s their reasoning.

2. LUTHERAN = CONSUBSTANTIATION = WITHIN THE ELEMENTS

Christ’s flesh and blood is substantially present alongside (“in, under, with”) the bread and wine.

They say, in the way that light is present in air, the essence of the bread and wine remains, but the corporeal body of Christ is present “in, with, and under” the elements.

3. BAPTIST = MEMORIAL = ONLY IN REMEMBRANCE

Christ is present only in memoriam. No sacramental union. No real relationship between the elements and the presence of Christ.

4. REFORMED = SPIRITUALLY REAL = REAL PRESENCE OF CHRIST

Through the Spirit, the flesh and blood of Christ are really present.

We are really partaking of the flesh and blood of Christ. But not in a substantive way, that is, we don’t consume the substance of his flesh and his blood, but we consume of Christ spiritually. We eat the bread made of flour and we drink the cup which contains grape juice but the Spirit connects the elements to the flesh and blood of Christ who is in heaven.

In that Spiritual sense, Christ is really present in the elements, and we are really partaking of him during Holy Communion.

Now we turn to the 2^nd heading: The Administration of the Lord’s Supper.

Two points to make here. The Holy Communion is to be administered:

1. REGULARLY

1 COR 11:26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

2. CORPORATELY

1 COR 10:16-17 The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.

That is, we administer the Holy Communion, when the church is together. We should not take the Holy Communion individually, or privately. It’s like eating reunion dinner alone, who you reuniting with? It offends the very nature of the meal.

This is the reason why, during circuit breaker, we didn’t allow you all take the holy communion on your own, in your homes. We waited till we could come together again to conduct Holy Communion services. Because the Lord’s Supper is a communal meal, it’s a “when we come together meal”. It’s meant to be eaten together.

Third, we come to the The Elements. The significance of the Bread and the Cup.

1 CORINTHIANS 11:23-24, 10:16b-17 11:23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 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.”

10:16b The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? 17 Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.

There are two key ideas symbolised by the bread.

First, is the idea of Christ’s Substitutionary Atonement. His death on our behalf. In our place, condemned he stood.

The Lord’s Supper is a Passover Meal infused with Gospel realities. And the reason the Angel of Death passed-over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt. Was because of the  Passover lamb, whose body was broken, whose blood was shed, whose life was given for the lives of God’s children.

Another direct New Testament reference to the bodily sacrifice of Christ is found in 1 Peter 2, where it says, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree”, again, stating the idea of Christ’s substitutionary atonement. It is our sins what he bore in his body, it is our sins that broke his body on that tree.

“This is by body, which is for you”. Substitutionary atonement. “Do this in remembrance of me.” Remember, with the bread, that Christ died for you.

The second significance of the Bread is the Unity of the Church.

Paul writes in the previous chapter.

1 COR 10:16b The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? 17 Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.

The bread represents the unity of the Body – the church.

So each time you take the bread, remember – Remember that we are the one body of Christ, Remember that we are united in Christ. Remember that we are not strangers who just happen to gather in the same place on Sunday mornings, no, we are one family in Christ, and we ought to live like it.

Everytime we take the Holy Communion, we testify to our unity in Christ.

That’s the Bread. Now, The Cup.

1 CORINTHIANS 11:25 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

The Cup is the new covenant in Jesus’ blood. What does that mean? The New Covenant.

The New Covenant is described in Jeremiah 31.

JEREMIAH 31:33-34 33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

The two main ideas in the New Covenant is about having a new relationship with God and being forgiven by God.

And the basis of that new relationship with God, and being forgiven of our sins by God, is the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ.

Without his blood, there can be no ultimate forgiveness, and therefore no eternal relationship with God.

So, in the words of Jesus himself,

MATTHEW 26:27-28 27 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, 28 for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

His shed blood ratifies the New Covenant God makes with us, of relationship and forgiveness.

So, Hermonities, as God’s New Covenant community, each time you take the cup, remember – Remember that you who were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Remember that you are a sinner whose stains have been cleansed by the blood of Christ. Remember that you are now in a new and eternal, covenantal, relationship with God.

Each time you drink, remember.

We have covered:

The Presence of Christ in the Lord’s Supper – real spiritual presence in the elements.

The Administration of the Lord’s Supper – regularly and corporately

The Elements of the Lord’s Supper – the Bread and the Cup

And finally, the Benefits of the Lord’s Supper.

Before we get into what the benefits are, I will tell you what it is not.

Ps Yang of Cornerstone Community Church, says “there are so many amazing benefits of communion…

One of them is healing.

No. There are many amazing benefits of communion, healing is not one of them.

But we have these books written on the benefit of physical healing of Holy Communion.

- “Eating your way to Wholeness

- A practical guide to Holy Communion”

- “The Healing Power of the Holy Communion – a 90-day Devotional”- “Eat your way to Life and Health – Unlock the power of the Holy Communion”

All these books, same author. Joseph Prince.

By the way, how many books you need to write on the same subject? What happened to “do it once, do it right?”

That’s not all.

He has one more: “Health and Wholeness through the Holy Communion.”

Here’s the blurb: “Misconceptions about the Holy Communion have robbed many believers of an important God-ordained avenue for healing and wholeness.

This practical faith-building book explains how the blood is for our forgiveness and the body for our healing, and addresses issues that cause Christians to shun the Lord's table.

This is a must-read for those who want to know God's appointed way to receive health and wholeness.”

The book includes a prayer to recite before we partake of the elements. For the bread, Prince says,

 Hold the bread in your hand and say this:

‘Thank You Jesus for Your broken body.

It is for my healing, my spouse’s healing and my children’s healing.

Thank you that by Your stripes, by the beatings You bore, by the lashes which fell on Your back, we are completely healed.

I believe and I receive’.

[Eat the bread.]

Now, why am I bringing this up? Because as a minister of the word, I have a duty not just to proclaim the good news to the church, but also to protect the church from fake news.

And in our Singaporean context, given the population of our Christians, vis a vis the popularity of preachers such as Joseph Prince and Ps Yang, there is every chance of you coming across this teaching either on social media, or from your friends, or even as you browse Christian books in bookstores.

If I was stacking Joseph Prince’s books on the Holy Communion on the shelves of Kinokuniya, I would place it in the fiction section, not theology. This isn’t theology; this is fantasy, this is heresy.

Listen to how Prince justifies the healing power of the Holy Communion.

“One of the things that the Israelites did when they partook of the Passover lamb was that they ate the head. So when you partake of the Lord’s Supper, imagine Jesus’ head bearing your Alzheimer's, your dementia, your forgetfulness. Partake of the bread as if you are partaking of Jesus’ healthy and sharp mind.

The Israelites also partook of the lamb’s legs. After that, there was “none feeble” among them (Ps. 105:37). Are you having difficulty walking? When you partake of the Communion, see yourself partaking of Jesus’ healthy and strong legs.”

I would go to Prince and say, “Where in the bible does it describe the Israelites eating the head and brains of the lamb?”

And he would have to say, “Well, not explicitly. But I was reading between the lines.”

And to that I say, “Surely, before we read between lines, we ought to read the lines themselves!”

Because the text doesn’t say that. The lines don’t lead us to that theology.

In 2000 years of church history, no theologian has listed physical healing as a benefit of the Lord’s Supper. Why? Because they didn’t know how to read the bible? No. Because it simply isn’t there.

There are many amazing benefits of the Holy Communion, yes. But healing is not one of them.

Now, what then does the Bible say about the benefits of the Lord’s Supper?

I want highlight four.

1. REASSURES US OF FORGIVENESS

1 COR 11:24 “This is my body, which is for you.”Each time we eat of the bread and drink of the cup, we remember the sacrifice of Christ which assures us for our forgiveness and salvation through his blood. We remember that we are forgiven, we are cleansed, we are washed, we are redeemed.

2. RENEWS OUR COVENANT WITH GOD

1 COR 11:25 “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.”

The Lord’s Supper is a covenant meal. Each time we take the Lord’s Supper, we renew our covenant with God. We remember we are in relationship with him, we repledge our allegiance to him, we re-commit ourselves to him and purposes for us in his world.

3. REMINDS US OF CHRIST

1 COR 11:24-25 “Do this in remembrance of me.” Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

Each time we take the Holy Communion, we remember our Lord Jesus Christ, we remember his life and his teaching, his cross and his atonement, his Lordship and his salvation. We remember that he is with us, in our weaknesses, and in our triumphs, in our grief, and in our joy, in our suffering and in our rejoicing, always, to the end of the age.

4. REAFFIRMS OUR HOPE

1 COR 11:26 “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”

Finally, it reaffirms our hope. Each time we partake of the Lord’s Supper, we proclaim his victory over death, his glorious resurrection and triumphal return to establish his kingdom here on earth, which will be eternal home. Holy Communion reaffirms our blessed hope.

This then, is the significance of The Lord’s Supper. Our second point.

We come to our final point of the sermon: The Solution to the Lord’s Supper.

Having explicated the significance of the Lord’s Supper, Paul goes on to say.

1 CORINTHIANS 11:27-32 27 Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30 That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. 31 But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. 32 But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.

What does this all mean? How do we eat in a worthy manner? How do we examine ourselves? What does it mean to discern the body? What does it look like if we judged ourselves rightly before eating?

These may seem like big and complex questions, but it’s really quite straightforward. We don’t have to wonder, we don’t have to guess. Paul tells us plainly.

1 CORINTHIANS 11:33-34 33 So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat,  wait for one another— 34 if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home— so that when you come together it will not be for judgment.  About the other things I will give directions when I come.

There is only one thing that Paul has in mind. One application. One command to obey.

“wait for one another.”

What does this tell us? It tells us that he hasn’t left the subject he started with. There is a just one problem he intends to solve.

1 CORINTHIANS 11:17-18, 20 17 But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. 18 For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. 20 When you come together, it is not the Lord's supper that you eat. 21 For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal.

That’s the problem. That’s the sin against the Lord’s Supper. They weren’t waiting for each other.

1 CORINTHIANS 11:33-34 33 So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another— 34 if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home— so that when you come together it will not be for judgment.

Judgement is dependent on whether or not we wait for one another before we eat of the Lord’s Supper.

So how do we conduct self-examination before taking the communion?

Do we think about our private, personal sins committed during the week? Do we focus on our vertical relationship with God? Yes, of course. But that’s not the primary issue here. The primary concern that Paul has in mind when taking the Lord’s Supper is not simply about whether you are right with God. It’s about whether you were thinking of your neighbour.

In other words, when Paul warns against taking the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner, he isn’t talking about the vertical relationship with God. His concern is with our horizontal relationship with others in the church.

So, if you’re going to neglect the church in general, and come for service only on Holy Communion Sundays, thinking that the monthly Lord’s Supper will keep you in good standing with God, think again.

The meal must be about your relationship with the church. Otherwise, you’re eating and drinking judgment upon yourself.

If you have resentment towards others, a fractured relationship with others in the church, first reconcile, re-establish your unity, re-forge your bonds of peace, then take the Lord’s Supper. Otherwise you might be taking it in an unworthy manner, eating and drinking judgment upon yourselves.

How then, do we eat of the Lord’s Supper in a worthy manner?

Four ways. Here are the ABCDs of eating the Lord’s Supper.

A. Acknowledge your unworthiness.

Matt 26:28 “For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

Acknowledge that you approach the table as an unworthy sinner. Wait, I thought we had to be worthy to eat the Lord’s Supper? No we eat the Lord’s Supper in a worthy manner that respects its significance or an unworthy manner, which contradicts its significance, but we always eat a unworthy sinners, receive grace from the Table of our Saviour.

If anyone thinks you are worthy of partaking Christ, I’ll sign you up for Catechism Class. You go through it again.

B. Believe in Jesus’ sacrifice.

1 Cor 11:24 “This is my body, which is for you.”

We trust in Jesus’s salvation accomplished for us at the cross. We believe the Gospel of Christ.

C. Commune with Christ and the church.

1 Cor 10:17 “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.”

We discern the body. We honor the unity of church. We love and care and are at peace with one another in the church.

D. Declare his triumphal return

1 Cor 11:26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

We live in anticipation of Jesus’ return. We live today for that day, when he comes again to make the world anew. We commit ourselves to live lives not for this present age that is passing away, but for the eternal kingdom that is to come. We proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Friends, the Lord’s Supper is a spiritual meal. The bread and cup are spiritual food. We are body and soul. Just as our body grow weak without physical food, so our soul diminishes without spiritual nourishment. The Lord’s Supper gives strength to our souls.

Let’s eat of it seriously, let’s eat of it gratefully, let’s eat of it worthily.

Before I close, I want to address the non-believers listening to this.

To you I ask, as you live in this world day to day, full of of complexities and messiness and brokenness, I ask, is there not a hunger in your heart that food cannot fill? Is there not a thirst in your soul that drink cannot quench?

What you need is spiritual food. What you need is Christ. His body and blood.

Only Jesus can satisfy that longing within you. Only his blood can wash away your sins. Only his body, broken at the cross can grant you life eternal beyond the grave.

Come to know Jesus, receive his body that was broken for you, be cleansed of your guilt by his blood that was shed for you.

Come, taste and see that the Lord is good.

Reflection Questions

• What is one thing you can do to reflect the significance of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Communion Sundays?
  

• What are one thing you need to avoid doing to reflect the significance of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Communion Sundays?
  

• Examine your heart to discern if you might have unconsciously “despised” people who are of a “lower status” than yourself. Confess and pray for a heart change.