Sermons on 1 Corinthians 11:23
The various sermons below converge on several clear convictions: 1 Corinthians 11:23 is treated as an authoritative tradition that shapes how the Lord’s Supper is practiced and preached, and each preacher insists the meal is more than a casual meal—it is a solemn memorial that calls for repentance, self‑examination, and gratitude for Christ’s atoning work (frequently read through Isaiah 53 and sacrificial typology). All four commentaries connect the ordinance to corporate proclamation—“proclaiming the Lord’s death until he comes”—and link participation to visible discipleship (often paired with baptism). Within that shared framework there are interesting nuances: some speakers urge regularly disciplined observance (even weekly) as formative identity-work, others balance memorialism with a robust language of present spiritual encounter while explicitly resisting metaphysical transubstantiation, and one emphasizes the supper’s pastoral danger when it becomes flippant or clericalized, thus pressing the priesthood-of-all-believers as the proper locus of administration.
The contrasts sharpen where tone, ecclesiology, and sacramental ontology meet. One strand presses a sober, penitential posture and warns of guilt for unworthy reception; another treats the meal primarily as communal formation and public identification that visibly marks and disciplines Christian identity; a third situates itself at the memorial end of the spectrum while allowing for a real spiritual presence but pushing back on literalizing or priestly monopolies; and a fourth tightly binds the supper to covenantal markers like baptism and to eschatological expectation (the marriage supper), producing different pastoral priorities about frequency, admission, and how strongly to press confession and holiness—leaving you to decide which pastoral emphasis will shape your own congregation’s practice—
1 Corinthians 11:23 Interpretation:
"Sermon title: Authentic Worship: Boldness, Generosity, and True Community"(Bible Baptist Church Simpsonville SC) reads 1 Corinthians 11:23 as authoritative tradition “received of the Lord” that demands reverent, somber participation rather than casual socializing, arguing that Paul’s repetition of “the same night” and his forceful rebuke of the Corinthian eating-and-drinking abuse means the Lord’s Supper is a solemn memorial that should provoke self-examination, repentance, and heartfelt gratitude for the bruised body and shed blood of Christ (he ties this to Isaiah 53), and he applies it by warning that unworthy or flippant observance brings guilt and the need to “examine yourself” before taking the bread and cup; the preacher further integrates the Lord’s Supper into the Baptist two-ordinance framework (baptism and the Lord’s Supper) so that the supper’s meaning is amplified by baptism’s symbolism of death, burial, and resurrection.
"Sermon title: 19 October 2025 - Peter van Breda - What is the Church pt.2"(Bellevue Church) treats 1 Corinthians 11:23 as the scriptural warrant for communion as public, covenantal identification with Christ’s sacrifice (he cites Paul’s “received of the Lord” formula in prayer), insists communion must not calcify into mere ritual but should “show the gospel” (externally identify a believer with Christ) and function as regular, disciplined practice—encouraging weekly or frequent observance and corporate self-examination in light of Paul’s admonition—while also framing the meal as anticipatory of the eschatological “marriage supper of the Lamb,” thereby moving the verse from historic tradition to an ongoing communal and missional practice.
"Sermon title: Sin, Salvation, Sacraments, and Suffering: Pastor Bob Answers"(Calvary Chapel East Anaheim) interprets 1 Corinthians 11:23 not as proof of a single technical sacramental mechanics but as the locus of a wide Eucharistic debate, arguing for a memorial/representational reading while still affirming a real, spiritual present-tense encounter with Christ: he surveys transubstantiation, Luther’s consubstantiation, and Zwingli’s memorialism and locates his own position toward the memorial end of that spectrum, insisting the bread “represents the work of Christ on the cross and His body” while allowing that Jesus may “present Himself to us” in the moment; he frames literalist readings (e.g., insisting that “eat my flesh” must be taken as physical ingestion) as parallel to other problematic literalizations of Jesus’ words (cutting off a hand, plucking out an eye) and urges restraint from treating the ordinance as a mysterious physical transformation, emphasizing instead the spiritual reality of Christ’s presence when believers gather.
"Sermon title: Preparing Our Hearts: Communion, Confession, and Proclamation"(Burkemont Baptist Church) reads 1 Corinthians 11:23–26 as authoritative memory-work received “from the Lord,” emphasizing the verse’s declarative force that the elements symbolize Christ’s substitutionary atonement (the bread as the broken body, the cup as the new‑covenant blood); the preacher ties the verse to Old Testament sacrificial typology and Hebrews’ fulfillment language to insist that the ordinance is both a solemn memorial and a communal proclamation — the act of eating and drinking “proclaims the Lord’s death until He comes” — and he tightly couples participation to inward repentance and visible discipleship (only those cleansed and following Christ should partake).
1 Corinthians 11:23 Theological Themes:
"Sermon title: Authentic Worship: Boldness, Generosity, and True Community"(Bible Baptist Church Simpsonville SC) emphasizes a theological theme of sacred sobriety: the Lord’s Supper is presented primarily as a solemn act of remembrance that confronts worshipers with the cost of atonement (the preacher repeatedly urges a somber, reflective posture and links the supper to Isaiah 53), arguing that genuine participation requires penitence and an awareness that the ordinance is salvificly significant (not merely a social meal), and he extends the theme to evangelistic urgency—if you’ve not trusted Christ, the supper’s memorial of payment should drive you to consider the gospel.
"Sermon title: 19 October 2025 - Peter van Breda - What is the Church pt.2"(Bellevue Church) advances a theme of communion-as-identity and formation: the Lord’s Supper is theology embodied—“we show the gospel”—so frequent observance forms a people who visibly belong to Christ, requires disciplined self-examination (per Paul’s warning about discerning the body), and functions both as present communal formation and as a foretaste of eschatological fellowship (the marriage supper), which makes participation both a present ethical demand and a future-directed hope.
"Sermon title: Sin, Salvation, Sacraments, and Suffering: Pastor Bob Answers"(Calvary Chapel East Anaheim) develops the distinct theological theme that Eucharistic doctrine must be held with theological humility and unity: sacramental language can validly convey presence without requiring metaphysical transubstantiation, and the primary pastoral danger is over-literalization that spawns clericalism; he also pushes a systematic theme that sacramental administration belongs to the whole priesthood of believers (1 Peter 2:9) rather than a separate sacerdotal class, reframing communion as a communal act of the people rather than a rite monopolized by priests.
"Sermon title: Preparing Our Hearts: Communion, Confession, and Proclamation"(Burkemont Baptist Church) advances the theological theme that communion functions as both remembrance and missional proclamation — an enacted eschatology: every reception is a public “proclaiming of the Lord’s death until He comes,” which grounds urgent ethical requirements (confession, holiness, publicly living as disciples) and ties the ordinance to believer’s baptism as the two New Testament ordinances that identify covenant membership and visible repentance.
1 Corinthians 11:23 Historical and Contextual Insights:
"Sermon title: Authentic Worship: Boldness, Generosity, and True Community"(Bible Baptist Church Simpsonville SC) situates 1 Corinthians 11:23 amid the concrete abuses of the Corinthian meal—Paul’s rebuke that “when ye come together” some eat and drink selfishly while others go hungry is used to explain why Paul insists the supper is not a casual fellowship meal, and the preacher connects the ordinance to first-century symbols (e.g., baptismal immersion as death/burial/resurrection imagery) to show how early Christian practices (Lord’s Supper and baptism) mutually reinforced a theological memory of Christ’s sacrifice, thereby reading Paul against the social realities of Corinthian gatherings.
"Sermon title: 19 October 2025 - Peter van Breda - What is the Church pt.2"(Bellevue Church) offers historical grounding by linking the Lord’s Supper to the Last Supper/Passover context and by noting the long pre-Reformation practice of weekly communion, using that longer liturgical history to argue that frequent observance was the norm in historic Christian practice and thus shaping his pastoral proposal that regular (even weekly) communal observance better incarnates what Paul “received of the Lord.”
"Sermon title: Sin, Salvation, Sacraments, and Suffering: Pastor Bob Answers"(Calvary Chapel East Anaheim) supplies historical-theological context by walking through the major Reformation-era Eucharistic positions (Catholic transubstantiation, Luther’s consubstantiation, Zwingli’s memorialism) and noting how those debates emerged from literal or metaphorical readings of Jesus’ words; he also reminds listeners that Jesus’ provocative sayings historically produced scandal and misreading, so later ecclesial doctrines about the elements grew in conversation (and sometimes in error) with those reactions.
"Sermon title: Preparing Our Hearts: Communion, Confession, and Proclamation"(Burkemont Baptist Church) locates 1 Corinthians 11:23 in the sweep of redemptive-historical sacrificial imagery: he traces the cup and bread back to Isaiah 53’s Suffering Servant prophecy and to the Levitical/tabernacle sacrificial system (then reinterpreted by Hebrews), emphasizing that Paul’s “received from the Lord” language marks the Lord’s table as the New Covenant fulfillment of Israel’s cultic types and as historically continuous with Christ’s once-for-all sacrifice.
1 Corinthians 11:23 Cross-References in the Bible:
"Sermon title: Authentic Worship: Boldness, Generosity, and True Community"(Bible Baptist Church Simpsonville SC) explicitly connects Paul’s 1 Corinthians formulation to Isaiah 53 (the “suffering servant”) to deepen the meaning of “the body that was bruised” and the shedding of blood—Isaiah’s imagery is used as prophetic background that explains why the Supper must be approached with sober remembrance; the sermon also reads the wider 1 Corinthians 11 passage (cup/new testament, warnings about unworthy eating, and “examine yourselves”) as an integrated exhortation and application for congregational conduct.
"Sermon title: 19 October 2025 - Peter van Breda - What is the Church pt.2"(Bellevue Church) weaves 1 Corinthians 11:23 together with the Last Supper/Passover narrative (Mark’s account and the Passover setting) to show continuity between Jesus’ action and Paul’s apostolic tradition, then brings in Revelation 19’s “marriage supper of the Lamb” as an eschatological cross-reference that frames the Lord’s Supper as both memorial and preview of the heavenly banquet, and finally cites Paul’s further commands in 1 Corinthians 11 (the call to self-examination and warning about discerning the body) in prayer to urge responsible participation.
"Sermon title: Sin, Salvation, Sacraments, and Suffering: Pastor Bob Answers"(Calvary Chapel East Anaheim) groups several scriptural cross‑references around the interpretation of the Lord’s words and communal worship: he invokes passages where Jesus uses difficult metaphors (e.g., the “hand that offends”/Matthew 5–18 material as analogical speech) to argue that hard sayings may be figurative rather than literal; he appeals to Jesus’ teaching that “my words are spirit and life” (alluding to John 6’s discourse) to support a non‑corporeal understanding of Christ’s presence in the elements, and he cites the promise “where two or three are gathered” (Matthew 18:20) to affirm a spiritually present Christ among gathered believers; he also leans on 1 Peter 2:9 to connect the administration of sacraments to the priesthood of all believers.
"Sermon title: Preparing Our Hearts: Communion, Confession, and Proclamation"(Burkemont Baptist Church) deploys a dense web of biblical cross‑references to press Paul’s meaning: Isaiah 53 is read as prophetic background for the “body/blood” language; Matthew 27 is used to narrate the historical reality of Christ’s passion that the elements symbolize; John 6:58 is cited to underscore the life-giving dimension of “eating the bread”; Hebrews 9:11–12 is appealed to for the once-for-all, superior priestly/atoning work of Christ’s blood; Ephesians 1:7–8 and 1 Peter 1:18–19 are used to explain redemption “through His blood” and purchase by a spotless Lamb; 1 John 1:7 is called on to link communion and corporate fellowship with cleansing by Christ’s blood; Mark 8:34 and Galatians 2:20 are used to make the ethical demand explicit (deny self, take up cross, live by faith) so that partaking is coherent with true discipleship; Psalms 51 and 139 are appealed to for the necessity of confession and inward searching before participation.
1 Corinthians 11:23 Christian References outside the Bible:
"Sermon title: Sin, Salvation, Sacraments, and Suffering: Pastor Bob Answers"(Calvary Chapel East Anaheim) explicitly references key historical Christian voices when treating 1 Corinthians 11:23 and the Eucharistic controversy: he names Augustine (citing the familiar maxim “in the essentials unity, in the non-essentials liberty, and in all things charity”) as a pastoral guide against sectarianism, invokes Luther to represent the consubstantiation/real‑presence nuance, cites Zwingli as the classic memorialist forersetter of the symbolic view, and mentions modern and patristic anecdotes (J.R. McGee’s treatment of prodigals and an origin/Origen anecdote about extreme literalist responses) to illustrate how interpreters have overreactionally literalized difficult sayings; these references are used to both historicize the debate and to counsel charity and pastoral moderation in Eucharistic convictions.
1 Corinthians 11:23 Illustrations from Secular Sources:
"Sermon title: Authentic Worship: Boldness, Generosity, and True Community"(Bible Baptist Church Simpsonville SC) uses everyday secular meal venues—naming Chick-fil-A and Culver's—as concrete, culturally familiar contrasts to show what the Lord’s Supper is not (i.e., it’s not a casual lunch or social club gathering), deploying those popular fast-food images to make the pastoral point that the Lord’s Supper requires a gravity and reverence far afield from ordinary social dining and to sharpen the congregation’s sense that Christian observance must be distinct from routine cultural eating habits.