Lessons #393 and 394
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+ 1. It is best to use this note after you have listened to the lessons because there are +
+ comments given in the actual delivery not in the note. +
+ 2. The Bible abbreviations are as follows: CEV =Contemporary English version, +
+ CEB = Common English Bible, ESV= English Standard Version, +
+ GW = God’s Word Translation, ISV = International Standard Version, +
+ NAB=New English Bible, NASB= New American Standard Bible, +
+ NEB= New English Bible, NET = New English Translation, +
+ NLT = New Living Translations NJB = New Jerusalem Bible, +
+ NJV = New Jewish Bible, TEV = Today’s English Version. +
+AMP = Amplified Bible, UBS = United Bible Society +
+ 3. Notes have not been edited for grammatical errors. +
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Description of Institution of the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor 11:23-25)
23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 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.” 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
Let me remind you that the message of this section, as we have previously stated, is that You should understand that the Lord’s Supper was instituted by the Lord Jesus that involves two elements in its celebration, with significances. Our last study was focused on the second element involved in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. We began to consider the declaration of the Lord Jesus during the institution of the celebration that Apostle Paul quoted in verse 25 This cup is the new covenant in my blood. We noted that the word “is” used should be understood to mean “represents.” The implication is that the cup which refers to the wine to be used in the observance of the Lord’s Supper represents what the Lord stated in the phrase the new covenant in my blood. Thus, we started to consider the key words that are necessary to interpret what our Lord meant in the words He uttered. We examined the word “covenant” in detail and learned that the disciples would have understood the new covenant the Lord spoke as a reference to the new covenant about which the prophets of old wrote. Because of time constraints we were not able to consider the second key word “blood” in the phrase the new covenant in my blood we started to consider. It is with this word that we begin our study this morning.
It may seem trivial that we want to consider the word “blood” since most people would say that they know what blood means so what is the point of studying something that they already know. The problem with this thinking is that there has been great abuse of the word “blood” by well-meaning Christians. For example, there are those who take blood in a literal sense and so they speak of such things as “pleading the blood” of Jesus Christ, thinking of His blood in a literal sense. Or we hear of the songs that indicates that only the blood of Jesus that washes away sins without knowing what is meant by the blood of Jesus washing away sins. Hence, it is important to understand what is meant by “blood” as it applies to Jesus Christ.
The word “blood” is translated from a Greek word (haima) that literally means “blood” as the red life-fluid of humans and animals as in the description of what oozed out when the body of Jesus Christ was pierced by Roman soldiers while He was hanging on the cross as stated in John 19:34:
Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.
Figuratively, the Greek word means “life-blood” as constituting the life of an individual. Thus, the Greek word is used for “seat of life” in the Septuagint of Leviticus 17:11:
For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.
Because blood is considered seat of life, the shedding of blood is the same as killing or taking of life as the word is used to describe prophets killed by Israel’s ancestors as our Lord Jesus referenced in Luke 11:50:
Therefore this generation will be held responsible for the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the beginning of the world…
Some English versions such as the TEV and the CEV avoided the use of the word “blood” in their translation of this verse. For example, the sentence the blood of all the prophets that has been shed is translated in the TEV as the murder of all the prophets killed. In our passage of 1 Corinthians 11:25, the Greek word is used with the meaning “lifeblood”, that is, “blood of a person considered as the seat of life.”
It is true that our Greek word refers to “lifeblood” but when the word is used in connection with Jesus Christ in the phrase the blood of Christ it has special meaning. We have studied in detail in first chapter of this epistle the phrase blood of Christ to indicate it is a reference to the death of Christ on the cross. Let me refresh your mind with an argument we used to demonstrate that the phrase blood of Christ refers to His death. Apostle Paul says that God reconciled us to Himself through the death of His son, that is, Jesus Christ, in Romans 5:10:
For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
The same apostle spoke of the idea of God reconciling Himself to all things but this time he used the phrase his blood in Colossians 1:20:
and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
If reconciliation mentioned in Romans 5:10 is through the death of Jesus Christ, certainly it is the same reconciliation that the apostle had in mind in Colossians 1:20, but instead of using the word “death” in association with Christ, he used the word “blood” that was shed on the cross. Therefore, there can be no doubt that the blood of Christ refers to His death on the cross. The point then is that the blood of Christ should not be thought of in a literal sense but in a figurative sense to refer to His sacrificial death on the cross.
Be that as it may, there is the question of the relationship between the phrase new covenant and the phrase my blood in the sentence of 1 Corinthians 11:25 This cup is the new covenant in my blood. The question arises because of the preposition in used to connect the two phrases. The preposition “in” is translated from a Greek preposition (en) that has several usages. However, we will mention only two of these that could apply in our verse. The Greek preposition could be used as a marker that introduces the means or instrumentality of a specific action so it may be translated “with” or “by.” It is in this sense that the word is used to convey that being put right with God or justification is accomplished by the death of Christ as Apostle Paul stated in Romans 5:9:
Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!
By the way, based on our consideration of the meaning of “blood” when applied to Christ as a reference to His sacrificial death on the cross, the phrase by his blood in Romans 5:9 should be understood to mean that justification is through the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross. The NEB conveyed this in that instead of the more literal phrase by his blood it reads by Christ’s sacrificial death. The CEV rendered the literal phrase as because Christ sacrificed his life’s blood. Thus, these English versions make it easier to understand what the literal phrase means. Anyway, the interpretation that the Greek preposition serves as a marker of means implies that the death of Christ is the means through which the new covenant is established. Another usage of the Greek preposition is as a marker of cause in which case it may be translated “because of, on account of” as Apostle Paul used it to indicate unbelievers are alienated from God because of sin as he conveyed the Colossians in Colossians 1:21:
Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.
The implication of this interpretation of the Greek preposition in the phrase of 1 Corinthians 11:25 the new covenant in my blood is the new covenant exists or is put into effect because of the death of Christ on the cross.
Which of the two interpretations did the Holy Spirit mean to convey through the apostle when he wrote the phrase of 1 Corinthians 11:25 the new covenant in my blood? This is a case where both interpretations are intended in that the new covenant came into existence because of the death of Christ and it was ratified by His death. We can understand this by looking backwards to the establishment of Mosaic covenant at Mount Sinai. God’s covenant with Israel did not involve any form of negotiation but Israel accepted the terms of the covenant which was then sealed with the blood of animals as indicated in Exodus 24:7-8:
7 Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, "We will do everything the LORD has said; we will obey." 8 Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, "This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words."
The use of blood in sealing of the covenant between God and Israel implied the death of an animal since that is the only way Moses could have enough blood to sprinkle on the people. That the first covenant was sealed or put in effect by blood was stated by the Holy Spirit through the human author of Hebrews in Hebrews 9:18–20:
18 This is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood. 19 When Moses had proclaimed every commandment of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people. 20 He said, “This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.”
Interestingly, the phrase the blood of the covenant that appears here in Hebrews, quoted from the Septuagint, is the one that is used in the gospels of Matthew and Mark in connection with the institution of the second element of the Lord’s Supper as we read, for example, in Matthew 26:28:
This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
The point is that the first covenant was sealed or put into effect through use of blood of an animal, that involves the death of animals. Thus, the new covenant Jesus promised was going to be sealed or put into effect by His own death as indicated in the phrase of 1 Corinthians 11:25 the new covenant in my blood. We are saying that the new covenant is mediated by the death of Jesus Christ. Based on the usages of the Greek preposition translated “in” in our phrase the new covenant in my blood., the phrase in my blood probably means by or with my blood, to indicate that Jesus’ death is the means of sealing the new covenant as well as the reason for the new covenant. There is, no doubt, that it is the death of Christ that is meant here since the human author of Hebrews is clear that it is by Jesus’ death that the new covenant was established as we read in Hebrews 9:15:
For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance — now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.
A mediator, as the word is used in the Greek (mesitēs), refers to an individual that helps two opposing parties to come into an agreement or attain a common goal with the implication that such a person guarantees the certainty of the arrangement. However, that is not how the term is to be understood when applied here to Jesus Christ since the new covenant is a one-sided act of God that is based entirely on His terms. Therefore, Christ is a mediator in the sense that He is the person that God used to put the new covenant in effect that established the new relationship between God and His people. Christ is the mediator because He offered Himself on the cross. By the way, that the phrase of 1 Corinthians 11:25 the new covenant in my blood is concerned with death of Jesus Christ that sealed the new covenant is implied in the record of Luke concerning the same institution of the second element of the Lord’s Supper as we read in Luke 22:20:
In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
The clause which is poured out for you refers to the death of Christ on the cross.
Our consideration of the key words used in the sentence of 1 Corinthians 11:25 This cup is the new covenant in my blood helps to interpret what the Lord said that Apostle Paul quoted. We have in a sense interpreted this sentence during our examination of the Greek words used. Nonetheless, for completeness, the Lord meant that the drinking of wine during the celebration of the Lord’s Supper represents the establishment of a new relationship between God and man created by His sacrificial death on the cross. Put in another way, the drinking of the wine during the celebration of the Lord’s Supper should remind believers of their new relationship with God made possible by the death of Christ on the cross. Therefore, whenever a believer participates in the celebration of the cup his mind should focus on Jesus’ death on the cross for his forgiveness of sin. There is a sense then that we should focus on the new covenant that was sealed by the death of the Lord Jesus. Consequently, we need to comment further about this new covenant.
The new covenant is concerned with a new relationship between God and man created by the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. This new covenant, no doubt, involves forgiveness of sin, as Matthew indicates in his gospel record in the passage we cited previously, that is, Matthew 26:28:
This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
The fact that Jesus’ death procured forgiveness of our sins is in keeping with the general truth about the necessity of death for forgiveness of sin, as the writer of Hebrew specifically states in Hebrews 9:22:
In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
The new covenant is superior to the Mosaic covenant in that unlike it that was mediated by Moses and sealed by blood of animals, the new covenant is mediated and sealed by the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. That the new covenant is sealed or ratified by the death of Jesus Christ is referenced by Him in the establishment of the Lord’s Supper although not mentioned in the passage of 1 Corinthians 11:25 that we are considering but Luke did in the passage we cited previously, that is, in Luke 22:20:
In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
We asserted that the new covenant is not new in essence but in its fulfillment. This statement may be noted in the connection of the new covenant with the previous covenants. The Noahic covenant in essence is concerned with preservation which is fulfilled in the new covenant. Take for example, Prophet Isaiah connects Noah’s covenant to the new covenant described in terms of future glory of Israel in Isaiah 54:9–10:
9“To me this is like the days of Noah, when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth. So now I have sworn not to be angry with you, never to rebuke you again. 10Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the LORD, who has compassion on you.
The Abrahamic covenant involves blessing to the nations through his offspring. This promise is fulfilled in Jesus Christ, the mediator of the new covenant, as first indicated by Apostle Peter as he addressed the Jews following the healing of the crippled man in Acts 3:25–26:
25 And you are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers. He said to Abraham, ‘Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed.’ 26 When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.”
Apostle Paul was more direct in asserting that the offspring of Abraham through whom the blessing would come to all peoples is Jesus Christ in Galatians 3:14–16:
14 He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit. 15 Brothers, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case. 16 The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ.
The connection of the Mosaic covenant to the new covenant is made by Prophet Ezekiel as stated in Ezekiel 16:60:
Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you.
The connection of the Davidic covenant and its fulfillment in the new covenant is indicated in Zechariah’s prophetic song in Luke 1:69:
He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David.
The phrase a horn of salvation refers to a strong and mighty Savior from the house of David, who is no other than Jesus Christ. These connections we have cited prove that the new covenant is not new in its essence but in its fulfilment where humans are brought into right relationship with God because of and through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross.
The new covenant while connected with the previous covenants of God is nevertheless superior to the Mosaic covenant in that it contains superior blessings, so to say, and in that sense, it is new also. For example, there is in it an inward enablement to fulfill God’s laws since God’s laws are written in the inner being of the beneficiary of the new covenant. The author of Hebrews quotes this inward enablement in his thesis concerning the superiority of the new covenant to the old covenant in Hebrews 8:9–10:
9It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them, declares the Lord. 10This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
There is also this fact that the new covenant involves complete forgiveness of sins, as stated in Hebrews 8:12:
For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
We could go only to give other facts that support the superiority of the new covenant but the facts we have provided are sufficient to establish its superiority.
There is no doubt that the new covenant was specifically addressed to Israel but there is also no doubt that God intended for its blessing to be universal, extending to Gentiles. Thus, James was perhaps the first to make this connection during the first church council in Jerusalem in that he saw the spread of the gospel to the Gentiles as fulfillment of restoration of the tent of David that Prophet Amos spoke about that was quoted by James as recorded in Acts 15:13–18:
13 When they finished, James spoke up: “Brothers, listen to me. 14 Simon has described to us how God at first showed his concern by taking from the Gentiles a people for himself. 15 The words of the prophets are in agreement with this, as it is written: 16“‘After this I will return and rebuild David’s fallen tent. Its ruins I will rebuild, and I will restore it, 17that the remnant of men may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who bear my name, says the Lord, who does these things’
18that have been known for ages. [See Amos 9:11-12.]
Anyway, with this comparison we return to the instruction of the Lord that established wine as the second element of the observance of the Lord’s Supper.
The establishment of the use of wine as the second element of the celebration of the Lord’s Supper is given in the command of 1 Corinthians 11:25 do this, whenever you drink it. As in the instruction concerning the bread, the command do is translated from a Greek verb (poieō) with a range of meanings. It may mean “to produce something material” hence means “to make, manufacture, produce.” Another meaning of the Greek word is “to undertake or do something that brings about an event, state, or condition” and so means “to do, cause, bring about, accomplish, prepare.” Still another meaning of the Greek word is “to carry out an obligation of a moral or social nature” hence means “to keep, carry out, practice, commit.” In our passage of 1 Corinthians 11:25, it is used with the sense of “to carry out” what is commanded. Furthermore, the command is issued is in what is known as the present tense in the Greek. Present tense in the Greek conveys several senses in the English. In the passage we are considering, the present tense is that of repeated action, that is, “do it again and again.” In effect, the disciples and so the church of Christ should form the habit of drinking of cup of the Lord’s Supper. As we commented regarding the bread, the present tense used does not tell us how often it is to be done, only that it is to be a repeated action. Thus, it is difficult to make any blanket statement regarding how often to celebrate the Lord’s Supper.
The command of the Lord regarding the second element involved in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper is do this. What is it that the Lord says for us to do in the word this? To answer this, we should understand that the word “this” is translated from a Greek demonstrative pronoun (houtos) that in general means “this” that may refer to something here and now, directing attention to it. The meaning “this” may designate the nearer of two things. It could be used to refer to something that has immediately preceded and so may be translated “this one.” It can also refer to what follows so it may simply mean “this.” In our context, it is used to describe what has immediately preceded which in a sense would be the cup that the Lord Jesus took in establishment of the second element of the Lord’s Supper. However, it is the entire process involving the cup that this refers. This means that this refers to three actions that we mentioned previously that the Lord took in the establishment of the second element of the Lord’s Supper although they were not directly stated but implied. This being the case the pronoun this refers first to taking hold of the cup that contains the wine for the celebration of the Lord’s Supper followed by giving thanks to God the Father and then drinking from it, that is, drinking the content of the cup.
There is no doubt that it is the content of the cup that is the second element of the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. To ensure there is no misunderstanding of this fact, the Lord added whenever you drink it. The word “whenever” may be translated “as often as” as you find in many English versions. This is because the Greek phrase (hosakis ean) translated “whenever” in the clause we are considering appears only three times in the Greek NT. It is true that twice the translators of the NIV rendered the phrase with the word “whenever” but in its third occurrence, they rendered the phrase with the meaning “as often as” where it is used to describe the two men that the Lord will use to inflict plagues on people of this world in the future as recorded in Revelation 11:6:
These men have power to shut up the sky so that it will not rain during the time they are prophesying; and they have power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want.
This notwithstanding, the Greek phrase that may mean “whenever” or “as often as” is another indicator that there is no specific number of times the Lord’s Supper is to be celebrated. However, it appears that it should be celebrated in such a way that implies that it is regularly practiced by a local church. Anyway, our concern is that the Lord conveyed that the cup used to indicate the second element of the celebration of the Lord’s Supper concerns the content and not the cup itself. This is conveyed in the sentence you drink it. The pronoun it does not occur in the Greek, but it is supplied as a reference to the cup mentioned in the sentence of 1 Corinthians 11:25 This cup is the new covenant in my blood. That aside, the word “drink” is translated from a Greek word (pinō) that literally means “to drink,” that is, to take in liquid, as it is used by Apostle Paul to indicate that he would not eat meat or drink wine if that causes a fellow believer to stumble spiritually as we read in Romans 14:21:
It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall.
The word is used in connection with a cup leading to the expression “to drink the cup” that means “to submit to a severe trial, or death” as it is used by the Lord Jesus in His response to the request of the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee, regarding the position they should occupy during the reign of Christ as recorded in Matthew 20:22:
“You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said to them. “Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?” “We can,” they answered.
The word may have the sense of “to absorb, soak up” as the word is used in imagery with the earth in Hebrews 6:7:
Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God.
It is in the sense of “to drink,” that is, to take in liquids by the mouth that the word is used in our passage of 1 Corinthians 11:25. The implication is that it is not the cup per say that is the second element involved in the celebration of the Lord’ Supper but the content of the cup, that is, the wine in the cup.
We had previously indicated that we will comment on the use of wine in the Lord’s Supper at the appropriate time in the study of verse 25. Because of the sentence you drink it, it is the appropriate place and time to comment on use of wine. Recall that in previous study we had indicated that the teaching that wine turns into blood is not a valid teaching based on the Scripture. So, our concern is to determine the nature of the drink to be used in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. This concern is due to the attitude of some groups of believers towards wine. It is difficult to argue conclusively that what the Lord Jesus gave to His disciples was unfermented grape juice. As we have indicated previously, Passover was celebrated using wine probably of varying alcoholic content. Nonetheless, the drink of the Passover was wine and so Jesus Christ and His disciples must have taken wine during the Passover. It is this left over wine, so to say, that Jesus used to institute the second element of the Lord’s Supper. Before we comment further on the nature of the drink that may be used today, we should briefly review the doctrine of wine that we have studied in the past. If you are interested in the full detail, I suggest you go to the church’s website and listen to Lessons 205 and 206 in Ephesians’ study. I will simply summarize the doctrine of what the Scripture says about wine before we focus on the nature of the drink that may be used today. We do so by stating four major points that are essential in understanding the doctrine of wine in the Scripture.
The first point is that Scripture does not say the drinking of wine is a sin. That drinking wine is not a sin may be seen in those passages where God approved it use. His approval is evident first in the instruction that consists of purchase of wine as part of the items to be enjoyed in the celebration of a specific tithe in Deuteronomy 14:26:
Use the silver to buy whatever you like: cattle, sheep, wine or other fermented drink, or anything you wish. Then you and your household shall eat there in the presence of the LORD your God and rejoice.
In addition to this instruction to Israel regarding wine, there is also a personal recommendation to drink wine as part of what God approves or favors in Ecclesiastes 9:7:
Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for it is now that God favors what you do.
The clause for it is now that God favors what you do is more literally for God already has approved your deeds. This sentence indicates the reason you should enjoy food and wine is because God is pleased with those who enjoy His blessings as it is His will for His creatures to enjoy His provisions for them on this planet with gratitude to Him. If drinking of wine is a sin then God contradicted Himself in that He encouraged Israel or the individual to drink wine or fermented drink. But God cannot contradict Himself and so we have to deduce that drinking wine is not a sin.
A second point is that the Scripture indicates that irresponsible use of wine can be destructive. Drinking wine, as we have noted, is not a sin in and of itself but abuse of it leads to sin of drunkenness that the Scripture condemns as one of the manifestations of sinfulness in Galatians 5:19–21:
19 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Drunkenness certainly affects a person’s behavior. It is because of drunkenness that Noah exposed himself, as indicated in Genesis 9:20–21:
20 Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. 21 When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent.
A third point is that the Scripture indicates that wine may be used for medicinal purposes. A medical use of wine that is given in the Scripture is that of the instruction of the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul to Timothy as recorded in 1 Timothy 5:23:
Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.
Wine the apostle meant here is fermented juice with a lower alcohol content than some of the strong drinks of today. Strong drinks with high alcohol content were practically unknown in the ancient world, that is, that what is called liquor or strong drink today, namely whisky, gin, etc., and wine with twenty percent of alcohol was unknown in Bible times. For it was only after the Arabs discovered the distillation process in the Middle Ages that men began to produce drinks with high alcohol content.
A fourth point is that the Scripture indicates that abstinence from wine is necessary under certain situations and recommended under others. Take for example, in the OT, abstinence from wine was required of priests ministering in the Tent of Meeting as we read in Leviticus 10:9:
“You and your sons are not to drink wine or other fermented drink whenever you go into the Tent of Meeting, or you will die. This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.
Anyway, we should emphasize that the Scripture nowhere forbids drinking wine and so if anyone forbids others from drinking wine such a person has become a false teacher of the type the Holy Spirit warned through the Apostle Paul that will forbid people enjoying what God created that is declared to be good in 1 Timothy 4:4:
For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving,
Wine is included in the sentence everything God created is good. Therefore, no one should teach otherwise. However, if a person chooses to drink then he should, like every other thing he eats, do so with thanksgiving to God. There are those who can drink with strong will over their minds that they would never drink beyond a certain threshold while there are those who would not know when to stop. Hence, if a person is in doubt if he could drink and still be under control, then the best approach is simply to avoid the use of alcohol for enjoyment except, as contained in various medications. This notwithstanding, if there is a rule that can be laid down with the use of wine, it is that every believer should use sound judgment to ensure that drinking of wine does not affect his or her spiritual life. Furthermore, such an activity should not cause problems for another believer. In effect, we are saying that you should not drink if that is going to cause a serious spiritual problem for others in keeping with what the Holy Spirit conveys through Apostle Paul in several ways in the Scripture. The apostle indicates that it is better not to drink wine or eat anything that will cause another believer to stumble in the faith as in the passage we previously cited, that is, Romans 14:21:
It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall.
With this quick review of the doctrine of wine, we return to the major concern regarding the nature of the drink for the celebration of the Lord’s Supper.
The first celebration of the Lord’s Supper involved the use of wine. Therefore, there would be nothing wrong with using wine in subsequent celebrations as done in the early church including the church in Corinth. For unless wine was used in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, the apostle would not have charged some in Corinth of being drunk during the meal that precedes the Lord’s Supper. Nonetheless, if we recognize that the concern of the celebration of the Lord’s Supper is not to duplicate the original celebration then grape juice or even any soft drink may be used. The use of nonalcoholic beverages is advisable to accommodate believers who have chosen not to drink any alcoholic beverages. Anyhow, our concern should be with the significance attached to the drinking of whatever is used in view of the instruction of the Lord Jesus that is given in the last expression of 1 Corinthians 11:25 do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.
The phrase in remembrance of me that we encounter a second time, having encountered in verse 24, is an important one in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. The Greek phrase is more literally to my remembrance. That aside, it is a phrase that is at the heart of the entire celebration. This is because it gives us the purpose or goal for it. In effect, if a person does not meet the purpose or goal conveyed in this phrase then the entire celebration means nothing. I am saying if a person eats the bread and drinks the wine or grape juice used for the celebration without fulfilling what the phrase we are considering conveys, the individual has missed the whole point for the celebration. Anyway, the reason for stating that our phrase is at the heart of the celebration of the Lord’s Supper is the preposition in used in the phrase in remembrance of me. The preposition “in” is translated from a Greek preposition (eis) that has a range of meanings. In the verse we are considering, it is used either as a marker of purpose for drinking from the cup of the celebration of the Lord’s Supper or it is a marker of what should be the result of drinking from the cup. This implies that the Greek preposition could be translated “for” or “to” or “as.” Since it is often difficult to differentiate purpose from result, it is probably that both may be involved in the phrase we are considering. In effect, we are saying that the drinking from the cup should have its purpose as doing what is given in the phrase or it should result in what is given in the phrase in remembrance of me.
The purpose of the drinking from the cup is given in the phrase remembrance of me. We have considered the word “remembrance” in verse 24 but for completeness, let me review what we said previously. The word “remembrance” is translated from a Greek word (anamnēsis) that may mean “reminder” as it used of the annual sacrifice in Israel that reminded them of their sins as we read in Hebrews 10:3:
But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins,
In our passage of 1 Corinthians 11:25, the sense of the word is “reflecting,” that is, the act of putting something in the mind for attention or consideration. A handful of English versions such as the NEB and the NJB translated the Greek phrase to reflect that memorial is involved since they translated the phrase to read as a memorial of me. Others turned the Greek noun into a verb as, for example, the NCV reads to remember me. Regardless of how the Greek phrase is translated, the point is that when believers drink from the cup of the celebration of the Lord’s Supper they should be reflecting on the Lord Jesus Christ. Our reflection should focus on His sacrificial death on our behalf. As we indicated previously in verse 24, our reflection should go back to His humbling of Himself to take on human nature to die for our sins. Then we think of all that He endured as He was abused by religious leaders of Israel and the mocking by the Roman soldiers then we focus ultimately on what He endured on the cross. In any event, it should be clear that the Lord’s Supper requires us to reflect on who Jesus Christ is and what He has done for us to provide our eternal salvation. As we reflect on the person of Jesus Christ and His work on the cross for us, we should also be filled with gratitude for what He accomplished on our behalf. To end our consideration of 1 Corinthians 11:23-25, let me remind you of its message which is: Understand that the Lord’s Supper was instituted by the Lord Jesus that involves two elements in its celebration with significances.
02/25//22