The Lord's Table: Remembering and Proclaiming Christ

Transcript

Morning, Saints. If we haven’t met, my name is Andrey, and I am a member here at Trinity Church of Portland. I also have the privilege of serving as one of the staff pastors. If you’re just visiting, we want to welcome you. If we can serve you in any way or get to know you, we’d love to do that. Make sure you don’t leave without meeting one of our members and seeing how we can serve you as a church.

Well, Saints, this morning we continue our study of Living Liturgy, our sermon series on worship. We get to look at this broader topic of worship, but also at the flow of our worship services and the different aspects of our liturgy. This morning, we come to the topic of the Lord’s Supper—what’s often called communion, or what some Christians call the Eucharist.

As we look at this ordinance, we’ll see how partaking of this meal—the bread and the wine—is a profoundly beautiful and deep act of worship for the people of God. So, as we dig into this topic, I want to invite you to open your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 11

.

Now, in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, there’s a lot of broader context. We would spend a lot of time digging into it, and if you want to understand the broader context of this book, we actually preached a sermon series on 1 Corinthians. I’d invite you to go back into our archive and listen to those sermons. But for the purposes of focusing on the Lord’s Supper, we’ll look at these verses.

Paul writes:

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

This, dear Saints, is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

Let us pray. Father, we ask that you would move in our hearts and minds, stir our affections as we hear the sacrifice of Jesus in our place from your Word. We pray this in His name, for His glory and our good. Amen.

People tend to trust their own memories. If you’ve ever been in a disagreement, you know that when someone recalls how they remember something, they often stick firmly to their version, even when faced with conflicting facts. But how good is our memory really?

Yale researchers analyzed 4.5 million CDC survey responses from 2013 to 2023 and found that among adults aged 18 to 39, the number reporting serious difficulty remembering information nearly doubled—from about 5% to just under 10%. So, one in ten people say they have serious difficulty recalling information.

A researcher named Ulrich Neisser conducted a study after the Challenger explosion in 1986. He asked people where they were when it happened. Two and a half years later, he interviewed the same people again, asking them to recall the same facts. Almost half—42%—recalled the information incorrectly. One participant even looked at her own handwritten note and said, “That’s my handwriting, but that’s not what happened.”

The stakes are even higher when it comes to eyewitness testimony in crimes. Of the first 375 DNA exonerations in the US, 69% involved eyewitness misidentification. So, maybe our memories aren’t as reliable as we think.

Yet, as Christians called to observe this ordinance, we are told to remember—despite our faulty memories or perhaps because of them. Jesus said in Luke 22

, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” Paul reiterates this command in our text, emphasizing remembrance for both the bread and the cup.

Why would this need to be repeated? How could we possibly forget what Jesus did for us? Surely, even if our memories fail in other ways, we won’t forget how we came to be Christians. Yet, our hearts and minds are prone to wander, as the hymn says.

So, let’s take a moment to draw our hearts back to what we celebrate every Sunday when we partake of this meal. Let’s consider what Jesus calls us to remember: the body broken for us, the blood shed to atone for our sins, and the result—the sinner saved.

Paul writes, “The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’” When we partake of the bread, we consider Jesus’ physical body given and broken for us. We remember His suffering, His anguish, the torture He endured in our place.

We studied the crucifixion account recently, and it is truly horrific. The Romans were masters of torture, and crucifixion was one of the most heinous methods of execution. Jesus’ suffering began before the cross—with betrayal, abandonment, mock trials, beatings, scourging with a cat of nine tails that tore flesh, carrying the heavy crossbeam, and finally being nailed to the cross.

He was crucified naked, bleeding, humiliated, hanging between two criminals. All this was for you and me. His suffering accomplished our salvation. God was not surprised by any of this; it was ordained and prophesied centuries before by Isaiah.

Turn to Isaiah 52 and 53, where the suffering servant is described as marred beyond human semblance, pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities. “By his wounds we are healed,” Isaiah says. Jesus bore our sins in His body to bring us peace and healing.

After supper, Jesus took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For the Jewish people, talk of blood brought to mind covenant. The blood Jesus shed establishes the new covenant promised to Abraham and prophesied by Jeremiah.

This new covenant is sealed by Jesus’ perfect, sinless blood. Hebrews 9

reminds us, “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.” Blood represents life, and death is the penalty for sin. Jesus’ blood satisfies God’s justice once and for all.

Some theological views misunderstand this. The Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation teaches that the bread and wine literally become Jesus’ flesh and blood, and that He is sacrificed repeatedly at each Mass. This contradicts Scripture, which says, “It is finished” (John 19

) and Hebrews 10, where Christ offered a single, perfect sacrifice.

Consubstantiation, often associated with Martin Luther, teaches that Jesus’ body and blood coexist with the bread and wine. While less extreme, it still introduces mysticism not clearly supported by Scripture. Jesus promised to be with us always, not just at the Lord’s Supper.

At Trinity Church, we hold to the memorial view: the Lord’s Supper is a command to remember and proclaim Christ’s death until He comes. It is a beautiful, meaningful act of worship that calls us to reflect on how we became God’s people.

Remembering is vital. The Old Testament repeatedly commands God’s people to remember His promises and faithfulness. The Lord’s Supper is a time to rejoice and praise the One who saved us.

Finally, as we remember the body broken and blood shed, we see the sinner saved. The meal points us back to that last night—the Passover meal—when God spared Israel by the blood of the lamb. Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

This salvation is not just freedom from physical slavery but freedom from sin and death. The prophets pointed to this greater substitute, and Jesus fulfilled it.

If you are not a Christian and are hearing this, God offers you the free gift of salvation. Repent and trust in Jesus, the Lamb who died for sinners like you and me.

When we eat the bread and drink the cup, we reflect on Jesus’ substitutionary atonement—His death in our place so that we might have life. 2 Corinthians 5

says, “For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

As we partake, we look forward to His return. Revelation 19 and 21 describe the coming supper of the Lamb and the new creation where God dwells with His people, wiping away every tear.

The Protestant Church has two sacraments: baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Baptism publicly proclaims what Jesus has done for us; the Lord’s Supper follows as a time to remember and worship.

As we prepare to partake today, set your mind and heart on remembering and gratitude. The word Eucharist means “thanksgiving.” This meal is our expression of thanks and praise to Jesus.

If you feel unworthy because of sin, repent and come. The warning in Scripture is for those living in unrepentant sin, but none of us is without sin. Come, repent, and remember that Jesus’ sacrifice covers your sin.

The Lord’s Supper is about Jesus—exalting Him, esteeming Him, elevating Him. May He increase and we decrease. Without Him, we have no hope.

That is why we do what we do when we partake of the bread and the wine, and why we call it worship. Amen?

Amen.

Would you pray with me?

Our King Jesus, our Lord, our Savior, our best friend, words fail us when we try to express the gratitude we feel for the work You have done to save us. Lord, we love You and want our whole lives to worship You. Help us by Your Spirit to live lives that truly esteem You. As we partake in this meal You commanded, may our hearts explode with joy that You would save sinners like us and call us Your own. We love You, Jesus, and we pray in Your name. Amen.