1 Corinthians 11:17-34
“Do You Remember?”

I. The Lord’s Supper
1. We shouldn’t take the Lord’s Supper flippantly as though it needs no preparation.
2. Thomas Cranmer, the archbishop of Canterbury, led the church of England to reform.
3. Queen Mary was determined to undo Cranmer’s reforms and make an example out of him.
4. Cranmer was forced to sign a statement that he was retracting all his reforms and made to say it.
5. But facing the crowds, he said what he had signed he did not mean, that he was forced to do it.
6. They dragged him out of the pulpit and took him outside and burned him at the stake.
7. As the flames grew higher, he held out his hand, ‘the hand that offended shall be the first to suffer.’
8. Modern Christians can barely imagine that the Lord’s Supper would be something that provocative.
9. Some have put their trust in that ritual, in something they did. They’re offended if it is undermined.
II. Remember His Body
1. Rather than neat and uniform squares of unleavened bread, we break our own so its jagged and broken.
2. Jesus’ crucifixion was not a tidy, sterile execution. He was brutally beaten and lashed.
3. His death was an ugly, violent, bloody mess. That’s what we’re supposed to remember.
4. Jesus instituted it at the very time He was being betrayed. He gave thanks for our salvation.
5. Our salvation is so great, that even the One who gave up His body to acquire it could give thanks for it.
III. Remember His Blood
1. The Lord Jesus said “this is the new covenant in My blood.” The old covenant had animal sacrifices.
2. They were to remember their sins, God’s holiness and justice, and remember they needed a sacrifice.
3. His blood is what makes the covenant possible, to create a covenant between His people and God.
IV. Remember Yourself
1. Because the Lord’s Supper is sacred, we had better remember who we are when we take it.
2. If we take it in a way that is not worthy, we will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord (11:27).
3. If we are treating the symbols of His Body with contempt, we are treating Him with contempt.
4. So we need to examine ourselves (11:28), even judge ourselves (11:31). Remember we are unworthy.
5. Perhaps the most unworthy manner you can take it, is to take it with self-assurance, with pride.
6. The worthy way to receive it is to know yourself, to “judge ourselves truly” (11:30).
7. The worthy way to receive it is to know yourself as a desperate sinner, dependent on His sacrifice.
8. Remember where we’re at now. “Proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.” We’re not at the end.
9. He is still yet to come. The Lord’s Supper is a proclamation for this age (11:26).
10. We’re between what has been done on the cross and what will be done when Christ returns.
V. Remember Others
1. The way the Corinthians ate showed that they weren’t remembering each other.
2. Because they weren’t remembering each other it is not, then, really the Lord’s Supper at all (11:20).
3. Some of them are weak or dead because they took the Lord’s Supper without remembering the Body.
4. The Lord’s Supper is a great blessing if we take it rightly but, if we take it wrongly, it can be poison.
5. God made them sick or killed them to keep them from being condemned with the world (11:32).
6. If we don’t remember each other, the church, we can’t remember the Body of Christ.
7. By not remembering each other, they despised the church, the Body of Christ (11:27).
8. Some were eating their fill while not caring that others were coming with nothing to eat.
9. The way we treat the church is the way we treat Christ. You cannot separate Christ from His body.
10. In the Lord’s Supper, we can experience the reality of the crucifixion of Jesus in our hearts.
VI. Invitation: We can, by faith, feast on Christ by in our spirits, sharing in His death, so too sharing in His resurrection life. Thomas Cranmer was willing to die for taking it rightly, holding his hand out into the fire. When we examine ourselves and see the body of Christ, given for us, we should too.