Proclaiming the Lord’s Death

1 Corinthians 11.26

Introduction

Whenever we eat the bread and drink the cup at the Lord’s Table we proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Proclaim

-Used 18x in the New Testament with four main subjects.

-To proclaim: 1) death, resurrection and Christ Messiah. 2) Word of God and the Gospel 3) Truths of forgiveness, salvation and Christian living. 4) Testimony of others acknowledging Christians.

To Whom are we to Proclaim the Lord’s Death?  

1) To ourself. 2) To each other. 3) To those in attendance. 4) To the spirit world. 5) To the community.

What is the importance of the Lord’s Death do we Proclaim?

1) Judicial payment for sin. We are lost sinners because of Adam, our sinful nature, the sins we commit. We are forgiven because of the payment of our sins by Jesus.

2) Our union with the death of Christ. Death to our life in Adam, the slavery of sin, the Law, the power of the flesh.

How do we Proclaim the Lord’s Death?

1) By the activity of eating and drinking at the Table.

2) By taking Christ as our life and nourishment.

Conclusion

1) Does the daily activity of my life proclaim the importance of the death of Christ, God’s forgiveness, my separation from Adam, sin, the law, the flesh?

2) Am I feeding on Christ each day so that my actions and attitudes show forth the death and life of Christ?

SERMON NOTES

Proclaiming the Lord’s Death              1 Corinthians 11.23-26

This morning as we gather together around the Lord’s Table and remember our Lord Jesus, I want us to think about verse 26, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes”. I want to focus particularly on proclaiming the Lord’s death.

The Greek word translated in most versions as “proclaim” means to proclaim publicly, to declare, to announce, to make known. It means to make others aware of something, in this case the death of the Lord Jesus. As we celebrate together around the Lord’s table we are making others aware of the Lord’s death.

This verb “proclaim” is used 18 times in the NT and the subject of what is proclaimed falls into four categories. Primarily “proclaim” is used in connection with proclaiming the death, resurrection, and Messiahship of Jesus Christ. That is how it is used in the verse we are studying today. Then in the book of Acts “proclaim” is used in connection with the preaching of the Word of God and the Gospel. Thirdly we find “proclaim” used in connection with specific truths from God’s Word such as the proclamation of the forgiveness of sins, the way of salvation and the lifestyle of believers. Finally “proclaim” is used to describe what others are saying about believers, “your faith is being proclaimed in all the world” (Romans 1.8). So we find this word used by believers to proclaim Jesus Christ, the Word of God, the Gospel, and the truth of God, and we find this word used by others to acknowledge that they see a true faith in the believers that they know.

This verse teaches us that every time we gather together around the Lord’s Table and eat the bread, and drink the cup, we are proclaiming the Lord’s death. As we meditate on this verse we can ask ourselves some questions? One question is “to whom are we proclaiming the Lord’s death” as we gather around the Lord’s Table? I have five answers for that question: 1) We are proclaiming the Lord’s death to ourself. As I participate in eating the bread and drinking the cup I am remembering the death of Jesus Christ for my sin. I am also remembering all the benefits of my union with the death of Christ

2) Then we are proclaiming the Lord’s death to one another as we partake together around the Lord’s Table. It is beneficial to remind one another of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, and it pleases God when we speak to one another about Him. Listen to what Malachi writes, “Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another. The Lord paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed his name. ‘They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him.” (Malachi 3.16-17) Our Father loves it when we proclaim Him to one another.

3) Then we are proclaiming the Lord’s death to those who are in attendance in the service of the Lord’s Table. The Lord’s Table is a witness of the Lord’s death for sin and of the only way to escape the wrath of God, to those who are watching.

4) At the Lord’s Table we also proclaim to the spirit world all around us the death of the Lord Jesus and reaffirm the victory of Jesus over sin and the Devil and all his evil schemes against God and God’s people. We are proclaiming to the angels in heaven and the demons on earth and in hell that Jesus is Lord through his death on the cross.

5) Finally, as the community hears of our practice of the Lord’s Supper they are reminded of the death of the Lord Jesus and hopefully begin to ask why that is so important.

The Lord’s Supper is not only a command of Jesus that we are to obey but it is a proclamation of the Lord’s death which we are to continually practice until Jesus returns in Glory. As we observe the Lord’s Supper we are declaring to ourself, to each other, to unbelievers, to the spirit and to our world that Jesus Christ died on a cross, and we are drawing attention to that death.

Another question we can ask ourselves is “what is the importance of the Lord’s death that we proclaim?” The basic importance of the Lord’s death is that the death of Jesus is a judicial payment to God for sin. Each one of us is a sinner before a Holy God. We are sinners before a Holy God in three ways. 1) We are condemned as sinners by God because we are descendants of Adam, and Adam’s sin is accounted to us. “One trespass (Adam’s sin) led to condemnation for all men, …by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners,” (Romans 5.18-19). 2) We inherit a sinful nature and are slaves to sin by birth. 3) We sin by choice.

Every sin committed must be punished by a Holy God or God cannot be a Holy God. If God is not Holy we have no basis in this world for good and evil, and moral behavior. God must punish all sin. To pay for our own sin would require that we spend eternity in hell. No amount of good behavior, sacrificial living, prayers, sacraments, church attendance, giving, is sufficient to pay for sins committed. At the cross in the death of Jesus Christ, God provided a sacrifice to pay the just penalty required for every sin ever committed. In his death Jesus took upon himself our sin and suffered the punishment for those sins and satisfied the justice of God. Jesus made payment for sin to God for everyone. Those who recognize their sin, the impossibility of paying for their sin, the sacrifice provided by God in Jesus Christ for sin, and take that sacrifice for themselves, are forgiven for their sins by God. So the death of Jesus on the cross is a Judicial payment to God for sin for anyone who would take that payment for their sin. What we proclaim at the Lord’s Table is the death of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins.

But the death of Christ goes beyond the forgiveness of sins. It also breaks our natural connection with Adam, and renders inoperative the sinful nature. In union with the death of Christ we die to all that we inherited in Adam, we are released from the slavery of sin, we are no longer under the bondage of the Law, and the power of the sinful nature is disabled. Our union with the death of Christ leads to our union with the resurrection of Christ so that God sees us in Christ. In Christ we receive his righteousness, the Holy Spirit, and live under Grace.

What we are proclaiming at the Lord’s Table is the greatest event this universe has ever witnessed, the death of Jesus Christ. For those of us who have received God’s forgiveness and who are now in Christ, we are proclaiming at the Lord’s Table the greatest event that has ever taken place in our own lives. We have been transferred from death and the kingdom of darkness to God’s kingdom of life and light. Our roots are no longer in Adam but in Christ. Our destiny is heaven and not hell. The Lord’s Table is a celebration of the death of Christ and our forgiveness and new life in Christ.

Let’s ask one last question, “how do we proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes?” The verse says that we proclaim the Lord’s death by eating the bread and drinking the cup. In other words we proclaim the Lord’s death by an activity done without words. We do speak, explain and apply as we come to the Lord’s Table but the verse says that the ceremony at the Table proclaims the Lord’s death until he comes.

Another thing to notice here is that at the Lord’s Table these elements are taken into the individual by eating and drinking. They become one with the participant.

So the Lord’s death is expressed both in the activity of eating and drinking the elements, which represent the body of Christ and the blood of Christ, and also by taking Christ as our life and nourishment. We proclaim the Lord’s death by showing that His death brings renewal to our own life.

Let me apply the activity of eating and drinking Christ for new life as a proclamation of the Lord’s death, to my personal daily life. Does the activity of my life proclaim the importance of the death of Christ? Does my new life proclaim that God has forgiven me, that God has brought me into a new kingdom and a new way of living, that the fruit of the Spirit is at work in me, that I am no longer in Adam, that I am living a righteous and godly life? Do my attitudes, actions, responses to circumstances and people, proclaim that Jesus is living inside of me, that the Lord’s death has had an impact on my life, a lasting power? Do I show by my life the importance of the Lord’s death to God and to mankind?

For this daily proclamation of the Lord’s death to take place in my daily life through my actions and attitudes, I need to daily eat Jesus and drink Jesus. This daily renewal from Christ comes by spending time in his presence, in prayer and in his Word. It comes through regular confession of sin, repentance, and obedience to God. It comes through perseverance in trial and suffering and painful circumstances. The Lord’s death is proclaimed in my life when the cross of Christ is working in me and I become like Christ to others.

As we partake of the bread and the cup this morning at the Lord’s Table and proclaim the Lord’s death, let us remember that we are to proclaim the Lord’s death each day by showing that His life is in us because of the death He died for us and our death to Adam, to sin, to the law, and to the flesh in Christ.