The Gospel of Bread and Wine - The Many Become One - Part 2 - Fletch Matlack
The Many Become One
1 Corinthians 10:14-22
Immanuel – 9/12/26
Last week we began a five-week sermon series called The Gospel of Bread and Wine, focusing on the Lord’s Supper. If you missed that sermon, I strongly encourage you to pull it up on YouTube or our website and listen.
Let me remind you of the main point from last week: In the Lord’s Supper, Jesus gives his church a visible, tangible proclamation of the gospel. This is bread and wine that reminds us of his death, gives us communion with him in the present, and points us forward to the fullness of his kingdom.
At the Table there is remembrance, communion, and anticipation. We have already seen how the bread and wine are a proclamation of the gospel. We looked back at the cross and there saw that Jesus is our Passover Lamb. His body was given, his blood was shed, his sacrifice is once for all.
We also look forward during the Lord’s Supper: Jesus told the disciples he would drink of the cup again in the fullness of the kingdom. Another meal is coming.
In the Lord’s Supper there is remembrance, communion, and anticipation. Today I want us to focus on the middle of these three: communion. What does it mean that we call this meal Communion?
In our passage we find the answer, and it is nothing short of miraculous. For when we come to the Lord’s Table, there is communion in two directions. First, there is communion with Christ. Then, because there is communion with Christ, there is communion with everyone else who belongs to Christ.
Main Point
At the Lord’s Table, the many become one as we all participate in the one Christ.
The heart of our study today is found in verses 16 and 17. But before we get there, we need to understand why Paul is talking about the Lord’s Supper in the first place.
One Lord
Paul is writing to the church in Corinth. Corinth was a cosmopolitan city, a religious melting pot. Old and new religions flourished side-by-side. Temples, shrines, and household gods were woven into social and cultural life.
There was a god for everything: Apollo for protection, Aphrodite for sexuality and fertility, Demeter for agrarian wealth, Asklepios for health. On and on it goes – if you wanted something, there was a god for that. Religion was like a buffet line. A little of this god, a bit of that devotion, a mixture of spiritual spices to serve your desires.
And out of this pluralistic paganism, some of these Corinthians became Christians. They heard the gospel and believed in Jesus. They gathered together as a church, and as a church they came to the Lord’s Table. But evidently some of them thought they could continue participating in meals associated with pagan sacrifices. Jesus on Sunday, a different table in midweek.
Paul says absolutely not! Look at the force of verse 14: Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. There is no room for moderation. The religious buffet line is closed. You have no allowance for even a tiny dash of idolatry. RUN! Flee from it!
And Paul says something in verse 20 that should shock everyone – the original readers and you: What pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God.
The idol itself is nothing. Apollo is not a real god. Even still, Paul warns us that idolatry is spiritually dangerous. For demonic powers exploit false worship and deceive you – manipulate you – through idolatry.
Demonic deceptions are alluring because they promise to give you what you want. In ancient Corinth, and all over the world today, idolatry is so attractive. The idol makes promises. “If you devote yourself to me, I will give you what you want: pleasure, security, control, significance, comfort, I can give you the life you want.”
When we were in Thailand we visited a number of temples. Two images from two different temples with donation boxes for special blessings. The other image is a power amulet market. People chant, venerate idols, give offerings, and purchase power amulets in order to merit spiritual blessings – such as protection from harm, good fortune, prosperity, health, success, and favorable karma, and the hope of a better future rebirth. Different countries, different gods, the same demonic promise: give your devotion, get what you want.
And demonic deceptions are not just behind statues. We have our American idols too. Many of our idols are moral pariahs: pornography, tarot cards, manifesting. Other idols are generally good things that we depend on for what God is meant to provide: screens for comfort, career for significance, money for security, technology for control, AI to answer all of life’s questions, even our children for identity. Even the best things can be twisted into idols.
Different idols, same demonic promise: give your devotion, get what you want.
But we shall have no other gods. Jesus alone is Lord! And his Table leaves no room for other options.
Read vs 21
You cannot belong to Jesus and another lord. You cannot serve God and money. Thus, what you do with your body reveals who you worship. What you do with your body reveals who you belong to.
You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. -1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Christianity is not something that happens only inside of your head. And if all your faith is, is doctrines and propositions, you’ve missed it. We do need good doctrine. To be a disciple is to be a learner, and he has commanded us to teach. But Christianity is also embodied. Jesus had a body, and that body was broken, and he shed real blood. Then, on the third day, he bodily rose from death to life.
Christianity is not just intellectual; it is physical and embodied. So our King gave his church embodied practices: water in baptism, bread and wine in communion. And eating is an act of participation.
Read vs 18
Paul’s point is that eating the sacrificial meal identified the worshiper with the altar. Eating wasn’t incidental to the worship; the meal was an act of participation. And that same principle helps us understand the Lord’s Supper.
Read vs 16
One with Christ
That word, participation, is tremendously important. The Greek word is koinonia, and it signifies fellowship, sharing together, a profound sense of loving unity. Paul is saying that when believers receive the bread and wine, there is koinonia with Jesus – communion with Christ.
This is why we call it Communion. The risen King of kings truly meets with his people and communes with them at his Table.
Last week I quoted 17th century Baptist pastor Hanserd Knollys. He wrote, “Christ and his Saints, do enjoy mutual communion and spiritual fellowship one with another, at the Lords Supper.” And then: “Christ Sups with his Saints, and the Saints Sup with Christ.”
I intentionally did not unpack that very much. I will today.
If you belong to Christ, then he is with you, always. His Spirit dwells within you. And yet Paul teaches us that at his Table Christ gives believers a special and particular communion with himself. By the Spirit and through faith, eating this bread and drinking this cup really is participation in Christ. We get this directly from Paul’s words in verse 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?
At the Lord’s Table there is koinonia with Jesus. He sups with us and we with him.
Now let us be careful not to fall off the horse on either side.
On one side is the Roman Catholic teaching of physical presence: the elements become Christ. The bread and wine do not transform into Jesus’ literal body and blood, and we reject the doctrine of transubstantiation. I covered this more fully last week.
On the other side is an error we Baptists are more prone to make. Jesus Christ is somewhere else, and the elements only serve to help us remember him – that Communion is merely a memorial. We reject that too.
Why? Because Paul’s language is far stronger than that: participation, communion, koinonia. A the Lord’s Table, there is truly a special fellowship with Christ.
The 1689 London Baptist Confession (30.7) is especially helpful here.
Worthy recipients who outwardly partake of the visible elements in this ordinance also by faith inwardly receive and feed on Christ crucified and all the benefits of his death. They do so really and truly, yet not physically and bodily but spiritually.
Notice those words. We commune with Christ really and truly – not physically, but spiritually. The confession continues:
The body and blood of Christ are not present bodily or physically in the ordinance but spiritually to the faith of believers.
Theologians call this the “real presence” of Christ. Christ’s body remains in heaven, but by the Holy Spirit believers truly feed upon and commune with Christ through faith.
As I said last week, the Lord’s Supper is not a funeral meal for a dead Savior. We do not pretend, transporting ourselves back 2,000 years to look at Jesus dying on a cross. No! The host of this Table is alive! And he communes with his people now, at this Table, by his Spirit and through faith, as we receive this bread and wine.
Think of how gracious Jesus is to us, to have given his church this meal. For our fragility, for our doubts, for our wandering, for our feelings of disconnection, he gives us this meal. His gospel available to our senses, to taste and see that he is good.
But our koinonia with Christ does something remarkable: it creates koinonia with everyone else who belongs to Christ.
Read vs 17
One with Each Other
Paul has just said that through the Lord’s Supper there is participation in the body of Christ. Then, immediately, we who are many are one body. These two truths are inseparable. Our communion with Christ creates a communion with Christ’s people.
We are not one because we eat the same bread. We eat the same bread because we have been made one in Christ – and in eating together, that unity is expressed, proclaimed, and nourished. Let me say it another way: The Table is an expression of, and nourishment in, the unity Christ has already created among everyone who belongs to him.
In Christianity, you cannot have the Head and reject the body. You cannot say, “I belong to Christ,” while imagining Christianity is an entirely private relationship between you and Jesus. No! When Christ saves us, he brings us into his people.
This is exactly why Jesus gave every believer two ordinances: baptism and the Lord’s Supper. I love the way these ordinances compliment one another. In baptism, the one joins the many. In the Lord’s Supper, the many join as one.
Brothers and sisters, we are a strange group of people. We come from different backgrounds, different generations, different socio-economic strata, different interests. For some, there is almost nothing you have in common. But together, we have this: one King has found us all, and in brilliance, has bound us together.
Together, his death is our death. Our life is located in him. His righteousness is ours. His Father is our Father. His Spirit dwells within us. The most significant part of our identity is that we are Christ’s, and Christ is ours. That identity marks us in Lord’s Supper, and in the eating we, church, have koinonia.
In my family, life has us going in a hundred directions. There’s work, school, friends, activities, meetings, church, all kinds of responsibilities. Throughout the day we see each other, we know each other, we love each other. But when we are all home at the same time, and we sit down and eat a meal together, that is so special. It is a special fellowship – we talk, laugh, relate the happenings of the day. We are simply together – family koinonia. And as time goes on, I know those meals are increasingly few. How precious they are!
Church, when we come to the Lord’s Table, there is a profound koinonia between us. For we all approach as sinners, but we eat as sons and daughters, brothers and sisters in Christ. We leave behind the chaos of the week and come to the Table, united as one holy family, beloved by the Father.
That means Communion cannot be merely a private moment between you and Jesus. I know it is easy to experience it this way: the music plays, everyone is quiet, we close our eyes, examine our hearts, remember Jesus. It all has its place.
But this is not just about your individual spiritual experience! Paul says, There is one bread, we who are many are one body. Christ has given this bread and wine to be a shared meal.
Look around this room. Really, look!
These are not just people who also attend a weekly service with you. Look at them: These are your people! Christ has purchased them. He loves them. He is sanctifying them. He will raise them from the grave. And if Jesus has done all this for them, who are you to regard them lightly, to dismiss them, ignore them, gossip about them, avoid them?
How easy is it for us to think: I have nothing in common with them. They are too conservative, too liberal. They don’t understand my lifestyle, and I certainly don’t understand theirs. They irritate me. They’ve hurt me. But Jesus sees each one, and he sees you, and he sees all that is ugly, and still he says, “Mine.” And therefore, “Yours.”
Brothers, sisters, family: The most significant part of our identity is that we are Christ’s, and Christ is ours. There is no deeper truth about us and it must transform how we see one another. For Christ has brought all of us to his family table.
For the people who gather at the Table with you, like you, will live forever. If you have trusted in Jesus for life, then he will bring you from death to everlasting life. Think about this for a moment: When your everlasting life has crested 10,000 years, you will see before you 10,000 times 10,000 years more. There will be time for you to spend an age with each person in this room, to know them without sin, enjoy the new heavens and new earth together, and rejoice together in Jesus without end.
Christ is yours, and you are his. And you belong to these people, and they to you. That future is declared to you in bread and wine. We commune with Christ and we commune with one another in the Lord’s Supper.
And perhaps now we can better see why Paul’s warning about idolatry is so severe. We cannot commune with Christ and commune with demons! We cannot bring demonic influence into our family meal!
The Lord’s Table makes an exclusive claim upon us. Every time we eat this bread and drink this wine we confess Jesus is Lord! I belong to him. His death is my forgiveness. His life is my hope. His people are my people. His kingdom is our home. No idol must enter.
The demonic says, “Your life is your own. Use what you can to satisfy yourself.”
The Table says, “You were bought with a price, and you belong to Jesus. And because you belong to Jesus, look around you – you belong to these people also.”
Brothers and sisters, that is Communion. We commune with Christ, and in Christ we commune with one another. One bread. One Body. One King. We who are many are one.
