This morning I do want us to linger over the Lord’s Supper. I want us to refresh our thinking about the Lord’s Supper and what it’s all about. I want us to think of how we can keep it rich in meaning and how we can rescue it from the dullness of routine.

I would like to suggest that whenever we come this table we practice three looks. And our guiding text for this is I Corinthians 11:23-34, but only to verse 26 for now.

"For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, 'This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way he took the cup also, 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." (1 Corinthians 11:23-26) (NRSV)

So how can we make the Lord’s Supper less of a routine and more of a vital experience in which we know the grace and love of God? I believe we can do this by practicing three looks. Before we take the bread this morning let us consider the first look. And it is a look back, a look back to remember Christ at Calvary.

That is why this table is centrally important because it calls us to look back and remember the cross of Christ. “ 'Do this in remembrance of me', he said after he broke the bread. And again after he took the cup he said, 'Do this in remembrance of me.' ”

Here at this table we are brought face to face with the Cross of Christ. We are at the place where they crucified our Lord. We are made to remember Christ’s selflessness.

Jesus said, “This is my body which is for you.” Of course we do not believe that this bread is the actual body of Christ, how could Jesus while standing in His own body, say to the disciples, “This is my body.” No, He was saying this represents My body, even as a photograph is not actually us, but a representation of who we are. So the bread, Jesus says, "This is my body".

Do not miss this –do not miss His selflessness for you. "This is my body ," Jesus says. "Everything I have, my most, my best, my all, the whole of me and it is all for you." And with that He put it into His disciples' hands.

“I am willing,” says Jesus, “to give you everything I have and everything I am in order for you to come into a new and living relationship with God. I have come to seek and to save the lost."

He is like the Shepherd having brought the 99 sheep home goes out and risks and gives everything to bring back home the one lost sheep.

And so with us. Everything He has is ours, every power He possesses is at our disposal, every ounce of strength is on our side - He keeps nothing back.

If there is anything that He can do, to give us life we can be sure that He will do it.

If there is anything that He can give so that we may encounter God then He will give it.

If there is any way at all in which He can possibly help us live the life that God has called us to live let the cost to Him be what it may, we can depend on that.

"This is my body, everything I have and it is all for you." Remember His selflessness.

Remember too His sacrifice. The text says that Jesus “took bread and when he had given thanks he broke it” (verse 24) The broken bread calls us to remember his sacrifice for us.

And the cup also - the drink is made from grapes that have been squeezed, crushed, mangled to death. So Jesus is saying remember the sacrifice I paid for you on the cross. Let us remember that His hands were pierced with nails. Let us remember that He was lifted up on a cross beam that was jolted into place so that His limbs would dislocate.

He hung in the burning sun till the fever of His bones dissolved His strength. There He hung in public display. The nails soon tore through the tender nerves and then the painful load began to drag on His hands and rip Him to pieces.

He was pierced, crushed, punished, wounded and killed for us. He was a sacrifice for us - for you see you and I were lost and far from God, unable to win his favour, except through the repeated sacrifice of animals. But now He says, “I will end all that and I will sacrifice myself for you.”

In verse 25 Jesus says, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood”. A covenant is a promise between two parties. One party says they will do such and such, and the other party says they will do such and such.

The old covenant went like this – God made the promises – blessing, protection, His presence and the people were to keep the requirements – the rules of the law.

But Jesus comes and says He will not only fulfill all the regulations of the old covenant but He brings a new covenant – and this covenant will be a little different. In this one God will make the promises – forgiveness of sin, new life, hope, the fullness of God - but this time, God will not only make the promises but He will also keep the requirements. It’s a new covenant.

He will offer Himself as a sacrifice for us. He will offer His own blood as payment for our sins. We know Scripture says “that the wages of sin is death” – someone has to pay for that sin of ours – and Jesus says, "I’ll pay it."

It is a new covenant in “my blood” says Jesus. It will be a covenant made and a covenant kept by His broken body and His poured-out blood.

As we come to this table let us take a look back. Let us look back and remember Christ’s selflessness for us. He went to the cross for us. Let us look back and remember his sacrifice for us. His blood was shed for you. His body was broken for you.

And then while there, see also his saving power.

In Hebrews 7:25 we read that Jesus Christ is able “for all time to save those who approach God through him.”

Is there any sin that He cannot forgive? Is there any wrong that He cannot pardon? Is there any person He cannot put right before God? No. Because His body has been sacrificed – now all who believe in Him have been given the right to become children of God.

Before we receive the bread this morning let us look back to the cross of Christ and consider His selflessness, His sacrifice, and His saving power.

There is second look that we must take when we come to communion. This table calls us to look back to the cross of Christ but we must also look inward.

Our text continues:

"Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord. Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup." (1 Corinthians 11:27-28)

Now note the wording it doesn’t say, “If you are unworthy and eat the bread and drink the cup…” No - we are all unworthy; that’s why we come to the table to claim the one who alone is worthy. No we aren’t barred from this table because we are unworthy.

But rather, whoever eats this bread and drinks this cup in an unworthy manner will be guilt of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. They will be held answerable, they will be held accountable for the broken body and the spilt blood of the Lord. And so Paul says, “Examine yourselves”. In other words, take an inward look.

What are we looking for? Well the context of this passage is crucial. The Corinthian church was a divided church. There was jealousy, anger, bitterness, social snobbery, it was awful. And when they came together for a meal the divisions weren’t healed they were only amplified.

So Paul says, remember that the Lord’s Supper is all about forgiveness, reconciliation, mercy, and grace. But if we come to this table harbouring anger against another, if we come to this table jealous and bitter against another then we are sinning against the body and blood of Jesus Christ, we are sinning against all that the body and blood stand for.

Do you see the picture? It is of a Christian who is celebrating the forgiveness of Christ, celebrating the mercy of Christ around the table of our Lord but in his or her heart they are unwilling to forgive their brother or sister in Christ.

So the text says "Examine yourself and then eat and drink the cup." In other words ask yourself, how is my heart toward my brother or sister in Christ? Do I harbour resentment? Do I still refuse to talk to that person who hurt me? Do I refuse to forgive even as I celebrate the forgiveness that has been given to me in Christ? Do I refuse to do the hard work of saying those three little words, “I am sorry”?

If we don’t, God will judge us, and while I do not believe that every sickness and difficulty that comes our way is judgment from God, I do believe that He can use such times to get our attention, He can use such times to call us to account.

So when we come to this table let us look within and confess our sin. Let us confess our anger, and bitterness and jealousy, let us confess our lust and greed, let us confess to Him our sin.

But let us not only confess our sin to Christ but also, when we look within let us confer our sins on Christ. So may people regret the past, they repent of it, they learn from it, and they try to do better, but they can’t forget it. They are always talking about it, they are always thinking about it, they are always brooding over it, and they have guilt feelings all the time and they say, “I can’t get rid of this guilt. I can’t be free from it.”

There use to be a movement within Christianity in the 13th century in which members of this movement would walk through the cities of Europe and beat themselves with whips and chain and rods until their bodies were lacerated and bleeding. Why? Because they believed that unless they themselves suffered cruelly and miserably for the sins they could not be forgiven.

How senseless we say today. And yet we do the same thing today – emotionally, mentally, flogging ourselves for sins God has forgotten and forgiven. We need to confer our sins on Christ and trust that once we have confessed them they are nailed to the cross never to live again.

I wonder if that’s part of what Jesus meant when he said, “Come to me all you who are weak and heavy laden and I will give you rest." Some of us are heavy laden with sin that has been confessed and we need to come to Christ for rest. We need to look within and confess, confer our sins on Christ, and we need to commit our lives to Christ.

It is significant that we take the bread and the cup in. We digest it. It becomes part of us. It is very symbolic for in doing so we are saying I take you Jesus to be in me. I take you to be my Lord.

So if that is the case there may be times when during looking within you discover that you do indeed have something against your brother or sister, by all means confess it to Christ, confer your sin on Him, but then in commitment to Him, follow his word and set your relationship right. Go and forgive that person who has hurt you. Go and apologize to that person that you have hurt. I think Paul must have had in mind the words of Jesus when he wrote this passage – Jesus said, if you are worshipping and “there remember that your brother has something against you” leave your worship and “go be reconciled with your brother; then come and offer your worship.”

(Matthew 5:24).

When you come to this table take an inward look and confess your sin to Christ, confer your sin on Christ, commit yourself to follow in His way.

There is one more “look” that must be mentioned. We look back to the cross of Christ, we look within to confess our sins, and finally this we look forward to the second coming of Christ.

Verse 26 – "For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the Lord’s death UNTIL HE COMES."

So we look back, so we look within, but when we finish this meal we look for the day when Jesus Christ will come again with a trumpet blast, and multitude of the heavenly host.

And we celebrate this supper until he comes. And it is a celebration. It is not an exercise in somberness, it is not a meal that bores it is a celebration that enlivens and invigorates for here we proclaim the Lord’s death! We proclaim the solution for humanity’s problems. We proclaim the key for getting back to the heart of God. Here we proclaim forgiveness of sin and the fullness of life.

Here we proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.

It is a celebration for we realize that we do not worship a dead martyr but a risen Saviour and a reigning King. And while He meets us at this table we look forward to the day when He will come again and we will enjoy a banquet in His presence of which this banquet is but a foretaste.

When you come to this table look forward – look forward to the one who first came to die but will come again to reign. See Him coming in victory. And let that vision carry you forward.

Let that vision sustain you in your service.

Let that vision embolden you to attempt great things for God.

Let that vision of Jesus Christ coming as King of Kings and Lord of Lord invigorate your coming to this table.