1 Corinthians 11:20-26

1 Corinthians 11:20. When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper.

Merely meeting together, each person bringing his or her own portion of bread and wine, and each one eating the provided portion, was not celebrating the Lord's supper.

1 Corinthians 11:21. For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken.

Bad as some professing Christians are even now, they are not so bad as these Corinthians were. One was hungry, and another was drunken, because they had turned the holy feast into a kind of banquet of a most disorderly sort. There was nothing in their conduct to indicate true Christian fellowship. The very meaning of the ordinance was lost in the fact that each one was feasting himself without fear.

1 Corinthians 11:22. What? have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? shall I praise you in this? I praise you not.

The Lord's supper is not to be made an opportunity for eating and drinking in disorderly self-enjoyment. It is a hallowed and holy institution, setting forth the fellowship of true believers with one another, and with the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul was an apostle, yet he had not been present at the institution of the Lord's supper, so he had a special revelation given to him concerning the way in which this ordinance is to be observed.

1 Corinthians 11:23. For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you,

That is the right kind of teaching which a man first receives from God, and then delivers to the people. Nothing is of authority in the Christian ministry unless we can say of it, «I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you,»

1 Corinthians 11:23. That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread:

What a pathetic interest is given to the Lord's supper by the fact that it was instituted «the same night in which he was betrayed.» Never forget that God grant that none of us may betray our Lord this night, or any other night! It would be the darkest night in our life should it ever be so: «The Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread:»

1 Corinthians 11:24. And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament

«The New Covenant»

1 Corinthians 11:25. In my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come.

This exposition consisted of readings from Matthew 26:20; And 1 Corinthians 11:20.