1 CORINTHIANS 11 (THIRD READING)
1 CORINTHIANS 11 (THIRD READING)
We might have read from Luke’s gospel which corresponds almost exactly with what we get here, but I thought it might be well to look at it as our own apostle received it and delivered it to us. We have, in the [p. 52] corresponding scriptures in Mark and Matthew, what the Lord did, how He blessed the bread and gave thanks for the cup. The Lord was pleased to put a very special significance on that bread and that cup, a moral and spiritual import. That must come first. We must apprehend the import of what He said, and appropriate what He puts within our reach in His body and His blood. We must understand that first.
Now we have before us what we do: “This do”. He calls upon His own to do something. Twice over He says, “This do”. One feels how touching it is that He should have given us something to do, not at all in the way of works, but He has given us a certain material act to do for the calling of Him to mind. It is suggested by love and it appeals to love. He says, “This do”. I have no doubt it is intended to bring together and keep together the company of those who love Him. It is nothing to those who do not love Him. If it is not an affectionate remembrance it is nothing. The whole act constitutes remembrance. Giving thanks, breaking the bread, eating and drinking is all one act: “This do”. It indicates the deep personal affection of the Lord. His heart yearned and still yearns to have a very definite place with us. The act — doing the act — calls Him to mind. The same word is used in Hebrews 10: 3 where the Spirit of God tells us of the yearly “calling to mind of sins”. The act of bringing the sacrifices called to mind the sins of the whole year that was past. This act which we do in eating the Lord’s supper calls the Lord to mind. The act brings that Person to mind. The Lord has been most gracious in His love in giving us a material and tangible act. There is no such thing as eating the Lord’s supper spiritually. The act and the material symbols, though having a spiritual import, call Him to mind. It is the way of infinite, divine wisdom. It is very simple but it secures the presence of the [p. 53] assembly as constituted by this material act. The Lord is calling all His own to the remembrance of Himself. There is special grace from the Lord to be counted on. He will furnish the grace to His lovers to do it, to do it in the way the Lord intended it to be done in order to have the results He intended. When we come together the remembrance is the first thing before us. It is the first thing in the mind of the Lord. He wants to be called to mind. We lose the sweetness of that sometimes by having other things before us, such as the presence of the Lord amongst us, the enjoyment of assembly privileges or the wonderful place of the assembly with Christ before His God and Father, but that is not remembrance. I do not think we shall reach or enjoy the Lord’s presence or His leading in His assembly if we do not start with the remembrance. The effect of having the emblems before us is that it gives concentration to every mind. Perfect unity of mind in assembly is brought about by the concentration of every mind on what we have come to do: “This do”. Every mind is concentrated on the Lord Jesus. We are going to do something, a certain act that will call the Lord to mind. The emblems concentrate our thoughts on Christ at one particular moment — not Christ after the flesh. We do not forget the beauty of that:
‘O who shall sing that path of worth,
That led up to the throne?’ (57:2)
But the emblems do not call us to think of Him after the flesh but in death. Christ in death! Beloved brethren, the Lord loves to be called to mind in that supreme moment when His love and the love of God found full expression as He gave Himself for the assembly. It was never to be repeated; it was a moment and an act adequate to give expression to all in the heart of Christ and of God. What an appeal to our hearts! Everything has come from there, and all will come from there, from that [p. 54] point. Our minds are concentrated on that point where everything blessed was concentrated, all in the heart of Christ and God, His body given and His blood poured out having the new covenant in it. We come to the source of all our blessing. Through all eternity we shall have nothing greater to look back to than the death of Christ. It is the greatest thing in the moral universe. The memorials secure the calling to mind of Christ, for those who take it up.
We get, as to the night in which He was delivered up, the contrast in Luke between what was occupying the Lord when instituting the Supper and what was passing amongst the disciples — “Moreover, behold, the hand of him that delivers me up is with me on the table” (Luke 22: 21) — the wretchedness of the disciples’ ambitions, desires, and Peter’s boasting! (verses 24 - 34). We need to have that in mind. How do we come together? Is it with a sense in our hearts that the Lord is not here, that it is the place and time of His delivering up? He is not here and that makes the appeal so sweet and tender to our hearts to call Him to mind until He come. It is Himself, for the calling of Him to mind (see note to verse 24). It is not to remember how we are blessed! We are blessed and enriched and filled up in Christ, but that is not the remembrance. All is concentrated in Him as having gone into death. If you have the attraction of the emblems on the one hand, you have in all that is outside the elements to drive us together. We have to feel as we move about that the Lord is not here and is not wanted here, but we love Him. He can do anything with a company that call Him to mind. We prove what the Lord can do with a few who call Him to mind! Remembrance is the key to the subject but it is not the end.
We have previously seen that in immediate connection with the Supper the Lord called attention to the joy [p. 55] which He had had with His own. They were to His heart as the fruit of the vine. He had spoken of that joy being resumed under entirely new conditions. Did they ever forget that? We need to leave a lot of room in our minds for the consideration of that. A draught of wine, a sweet cordial to His heart, companionship with His own on earth — “With desire I have desired ...” It was the last act in a companionship full of sweetness to the heart of the Lord. The Lord indicated to them that that pleasure was to be continued in a new way in the kingdom of God after His death and resurrection. The disciples could never forget the Lord saying that! They had realised that the Lord had delight in them. “My delights were with the sons of men” Proverbs 8: 31; “To the saints that are on the earth, and to the excellent thou hast said, In them is all my delight”, Psalm 16: 3. It was the wine of His soul, the companionship of His brethren. Has the Lord lost the desire for that? The Lord coupled the two things together, knowing and doing, when speaking to His disciples for the last time, John 13: 17. The Lord gives a sense all through those chapters of how He loved His own. The conviction, intense conviction of it, was borne in upon them, and is now upon our hearts. “I go to prepare you a place; and ... I am coming again and shall receive you to myself, that where I am ye also may be”, John 14: 2, 3. Love must have the company of the loved objects; it is the desire of love. The presence of the Lord in the midst of His own is not merely privilege for us but joy for the Lord! His own joy brings Him into the midst of His own. When christians respond to “This do” they form a circle; the centre is the remembrance. On the table there is the loaf and the cup; that is the centre, the remembrance; it brings the saints together and they form the circle. In Mark 3: 20 and 32 - 35, the Lord is the centre in the house and He is “looking around in a circuit [p. 56] at those that were sitting around him”. All were doing the will of God. The supreme will of God is that we should be in right relation with Christ. The Lord’s supper reconstitutes the circle. The circle of Mark 3 was broken in on by His death, but now the Lord’s supper reconstitutes the circle. His love brings Him; His own pleasure brings Him there. “Ye have heard that I have said unto you, I go away and I am coming to you”, John 14: 28. Supreme fact! The Lord loves to come in, and where the calling to mind has been He loves to come Himself. The will of God is that every lover of Christ should find his or her place there in that circle. “I am coming to you” is characteristic of the whole period during which the world would see Him no longer. It is a great spiritual reality that the Lord comes to take His place in that circle which has been reconstituted by calling Him to mind. “If ye love me, keep my commandments ... I am coming to you”, John 14: 15 - 18. The condition really is that we keep His commandments. If we have found our place in that circle and partake of the Supper to call Him to mind the conditions are there. You prove yourself (1 Corinthians 11: 28) as a subject of self-judgment and you are there to think of another Person. It works weekly. The Lord gave suggestions. He “came and stood in the midst” on two first days of the week (John 20: 19, 26). Later it is recorded of the saints at Troas, “And the first day of the week, we being assembled to break bread” (Acts 20: 7); the circle is reconstituted afresh and His delight brings Him there. The circle comes into evidence; the church is not invisible. That will never do! The expression ‘the invisible church’ was first made use of after corruption had set in. The Lord’s supper is not invisible nor the company who eat it. That is the visible church! The Lord comes because of the joy He has in the companionship of His brethren. It [p. 57] is not a pitying and compassionate love like giving something to a poor beggar. We can say to the Lord, ‘Here we are for Thee to delight in’. He comes in joy and He comes to sing. The bread and the cup are clothed with a spiritual significance and His joy is in His own. “And having sung a hymn” is the indication of a spiritual course. He comes in to sing! When He comes in He comes in to sing, not to rebuke nor to teach; He comes in joy. It is His real delight to come. He comes with delight. We get no example of the Lord singing in resurrection, but it is prophetically announced in Psalm 22: 22, “I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee”. It is after the sorrows of atonement and the “horns of the buffaloes”, after the whole work of glorifying God is completed. Our special title to it is in “I will confess to thee among the nations, and will sing to thy name”, Romans 15: 9. The word translated ‘sing’ means in the original that the singer sings to a musical accompaniment, that there is a musical instrument to accompany him: “To the chief Musician. On my stringed instruments”, Habakkuk 3: 19. Think of the assembly as the accompanying and responsive instrument! There is nothing to hinder the Lord from delighting His own heart with His own now. There is a tuned instrument to respond in accord with His singing. It is perfectly delightful.
The apostle could not say all he wanted to say to the Corinthians but he starts the saints on a line that will carry them into the blessedness of everything. The way into it is by way of the Supper. The truth of the Supper after nineteen centuries is restored to us: do not let us miss all that is contained in it.
We see, firstly, the Lord secures everything for us; secondly, joy is secured for Christ; and thirdly, everything is secured for God. Then we come to the mount of [p. 58] Olives. We move up into all the blessedness of what is heavenly: “I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”, John 20: 17. It leads us from the light of Matthew and Mark, intelligence as to the spiritual import of what the Lord did, on to the remembrance in Luke, a place for the Lord secured for Him to come to. Who can limit the blessing then? We cannot tell or prescribe what shall be if the Lord comes in as Head!