If you are looking in a pew Bible, page 958, 1 Corinthians 11, 17 to 34, Paul's teaching
on the Lord's Supper.
Let us read together.
But in the following instructions, I do not commend you, because when you come together,
it is not for the better, but for the worse.
For in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions
among you.
And I believe it in part.
For there must be factions among you, in order that those who are genuine among you may be
recognized.
When you come together, it is not the Lord's Supper that you eat.
For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal.
One goes hungry, another gets drunk.
What?
Do you not have houses to eat and drink in?
Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing?
What shall I say to you?
Shall I commend you in this?
No, I will not.
For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night when
He was betrayed, took bread, 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.
In the same way also, He took the cup 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.
Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will
be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord.
Let a person examine himself then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.
That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.
But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged.
But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned
along with the world.
So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another.
If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, so that when you come together, it will not
be for judgment.
About the other things, I will give directions when I come.
Well, this morning we're considering the Lord's Supper.
On the surface, it may seem like a fairly straightforward church topic, not quite as controversial as
last week's passage on head coverings, or the next three chapters on spiritual gifts, including
prophecy and speaking in tongues.
But at many points in church history, the Lord's Supper has been a matter of intense controversy.
Churches have debated and divided over such questions as these.
How often should we celebrate the Lord's Supper?
Daily?
Weekly?
Monthly?
Quarterly?
Once a year?
How should we understand the relationship between the bread and wine, or grape juice,
and the body and blood of Christ?
Do they actually become the body and blood of Christ?
Are they just symbolic reminders, or is it something in between?
Who should receive the Lord's Supper?
Another question.
Only the members of a particular church, all baptized believers, only those who've confessed
their sins.
What about believers who keep on sinning?
Some of you may know that Jonathan Edwards was thrown out of his church where he had been
the pastor because of a controversy over who should and who shouldn't receive communion.
Now, despite the many controversies surrounding the Lord's Supper in church history, it's
still one of the most distinctive and universal Christian practices, along with baptism.
Every Christian church, except for the Quakers and the Salvation Army, celebrates the Lord's
Supper in one form or other.
And if you think about it, it's sort of unusual.
If you're not a Christian, or if you weren't raised going to church, can you remember the
first time that you observed a communion service or encountered a group of Christians who are
eating bread and drinking wine or juice that represented for them the body and blood of Jesus,
who was crucified 2,000 years ago?
You might have…
I mean, maybe you thought, that seems really weird.
It's almost grotesque.
In the ancient Roman Empire, when Christianity was spreading and Christians were persecuted
and the church had to meet in secret, some people started spreading rumors completely with
no factual basis that Christians were cannibals, eating human flesh and drinking human blood.
The rumors were completely false, but you might understand how when Christians couldn't
publicly defend themselves, the rumors kept on spreading.
And yet, despite the rumors and the weirdness on the outside, and despite the controversies
on the inside, Christians have continued to gather and celebrate and even treasure and
eagerly anticipate the Lord's Supper, week by week, month by month, year by year.
So, this morning we want to look at the Lord's Supper.
What's it all about?
Why does it matter so much?
How can we approach it rightly?
This is the longest passage in the New Testament that gives teaching on this topic, and I want
to look at it under three headings.
First, the problem in Corinth, verse 17 to 22.
Second, the pattern from Christ, verse 23 to 26.
And third, practical applications.
Now, unlike my last sermon, the third point is not the shortest, and the first point is
not the longest.
Anyway, all right, going on.
First, we're just going to plow ahead.
The problem in Corinth, verse 17 to 22.
Now, in Paul's mind, this was a pretty serious problem that was going on.
If you look back at verse 2 of this chapter, Paul said,
I commend you or I praise you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions
even as I delivered them to you.
Verse 17, he says, though, in the following instructions, I do not commend you.
Verse 22, shall I commend you in this?
No, I will not commend you.
Paul wasn't happy.
He said, when you get together, it's not for the better, it's for the worse.
So, what was going on?
Well, verse 18 says, when you come together, there were divisions.
Paul already expressed his dismay over divisions in the church.
Chapters 1 through 4, some divisions focus around specific leaders.
Here, the divisions seem to focus around class and social status.
We'll see that in a minute.
Now, verse 19 might seem a bit confusing.
What does Paul mean by that?
I think he means the divisions aren't good in themselves, but they're also part of God's
plan to show who truly belongs to him, who is genuine and who's not.
But verses 20 and 21 actually show us some of what was going on.
Paul says, when you come together, it's not the Lord's Supper that you eat.
Each one goes ahead with his own meal.
One goes hungry.
Another gets drunk.
Now, how does that make any sense?
What was going on?
Four things, context, that will help us understand.
First, the early church normally met in the homes of believers.
There were no dedicated church buildings for at least two or three hundred years.
And mostly in the houses of wealthier believers who had larger houses so they could accommodate
more people.
Second, when the early church gathered, they regularly shared meals together.
We see this in Acts, where it says the believers gathered to break bread together.
This was also typical of religious societies and social clubs in the ancient world.
You'd often gather in the evening at somebody's house, eat a meal, perhaps sing a hymn or share
a toast in honor of the God you are worshiping, perhaps listen to a speaker and engage in conversation
long into the night.
Early Christian church meetings weren't far from that.
But when Christians gathered together, they shared what we know as what we call the Lord's
Supper, eating bread and drinking from a cup, remembering Jesus' body and blood and His death
on the cross as part…but it was part of a larger fellowship meal.
So, that's part of what's going on here.
So, third factor, the dining room of a typical Roman house was too small to fit everyone.
Normally, they would have three couches on three walls.
It was called a triclinium, a room with three walls, and there would be about nine people
who could fit in there, maybe 15 or 20 in a big, big house could fit in the dining room.
Most people would be out in what they called the atrium or the courtyard.
That could fit maybe 30 to 50 people.
It was, you know, not as comfortable.
There weren't all these comfortable couches to recline on, but that's where most people
would be.
And now, here is the most important factor.
At a typical dinner party in the ancient world, the host would treat people differently
based on their social status and their relationship to the host.
So, typically, if you were a well-to-do host in Corinth, public official in town perhaps,
you might invite your other friends from City Hall who also happen to be Christians, and
you'd seat them in the dining room on the nice couches.
And the other people, the day laborers, the slaves, the freedmen, would stand outside in
the courtyard.
Maybe people who you didn't know so well think, well, okay, I don't know who they are.
It was sort of like most airplanes today.
There was first class where you get a full gourmet meal, a comfortable seat, and you're
weighted on hand and foot, and there's coach, where you're stuffed in there, and you get
peanuts or pretzels, and one cup of soda on the three-hour flight.
One Roman writer described a dinner party as follows.
The best dishes were set in front of the host and a select few, and cheap scraps of food
before the rest of the company.
He had even put the wine into tiny little flasks divided into three categories.
One lot was intended for himself and for us.
He was one of the privileged folks.
Another for his lesser friends, and the third for his and our freedmen, that is, former slaves.
And this was very common.
It was the expected pattern in that society.
As a host, you would treat people differently based on their relationship to you and their
status in society.
And when the Corinthian church gathered together, it seems a similar pattern prevailed.
Perhaps the privileged ones were invited into the dining room.
The poor Christians were kept outside in the courtyard.
Perhaps the privileged folks who had more flexible schedules arrived earlier, ate the best food
first, and by the time the poor people got off work at the end of the day, because they
had longer work hours, there was hardly any food left over for them.
And that would make sense of why Paul says in verse 21, each one goes ahead with his own
meal, and why he tells them in verse 33, wait for each other.
Although that verse could also mean simply share with one another.
Now, Paul was absolutely outraged.
As you can see in verse 22, do you despise the church of God and humiliate or dishonor those
who have nothing?
What shall I say to you?
So, this was the problem in the Corinthian church.
When they gathered to share meals and the Lord's Supper, the privileged Christians were
somehow dishonoring the poor Christians.
Now, before we go on to the second section, let me make two brief asides.
Number one, Paul assumes that the church is called to be distinct from the surrounding
world, the culture in which we live in.
The behavior that ticked Paul off was not unusual.
It was normal in broader Corinthian society.
But Paul's assumption is the church is called to live by a different standard.
It's countable to reflect the values of God's kingdom and not the values of this present age.
Second, notice that in this chapter, Paul speaks differently to issues of gender and class.
Now, our society tends to put gender, race, class, and sexuality as all in sort of one big category.
And some people think either you're a traditionalist and you want to affirm distinctions in all those
areas and you end up privileging some people over others, or you're progressive and open-minded
and you want to break down those categories.
But the Bible's view is far more nuanced.
In last week's passage, Paul reminded the Corinthians that their new freedom in Christ
shouldn't erase all gender distinctions.
God made us in His image as male and female.
No one is superior or inferior.
But we are distinct and different.
And that's part of God's good design.
It's a reflection of His glory.
It will last into eternity.
So, in the church, Paul says we should honor one another by celebrating both our gender distinctions
and our interdependence.
But Paul's attitude towards social class is very different.
And the Bible's attitude is also very different.
If you go back to Genesis 1 and 2, God made human beings in His image.
Male and female, God did not make human beings with the rich and the middle class and the poor.
It's just not in the creation narrative.
And in the Old Testament, there are not some laws that apply in a certain way to rich people
and other laws that, you know, if you…
In the Old Testament, if you commit the same crime, it doesn't matter what status you have,
you have the same punishment, which was not the case in any other ancient society outside of Israel.
If anything, what you see is that God has a particular concern for the poor and vulnerable
and protecting people who otherwise wouldn't be protected.
Now, obviously in this world, some people will have more money or more education or more social power than others.
That's simply a fact.
But what Paul is saying here, according to Paul and according to Jesus,
that's not part of your core identity.
And that should make no difference, absolutely no difference, in how you are treated in the church.
If you're a CEO of a company, if you're a graduate of Yale, if you're earning six figures,
you shouldn't be treated any differently than someone who has an eighth grade education
and works as a janitor or works in retail or who's disabled.
Jesus chose fishermen with no formal education to be His disciples, some of His disciples.
And Paul says, don't despise the church of God by humiliating those who have nothing in this world.
world.
Don't ignore them.
Don't marginalize them.
Don't push them to the side.
In chapter 1, Paul said, God chose people who are low and despised in this world,
even things that are not.
People who are nobodies in the eyes of the world to bring to nothing things that are
so that no one might boast in the presence of God.
Paul says, God intentionally chose all kinds of people,
including people who have nothing in this world to belong to Him and be eternally rich
and show the riches of His glory.
Paul says, how would you dishonor people whom God has chosen?
So that's the Corinthian problem.
Second, Paul shows us the pattern from Christ, verse 23 to 26.
Now, in order to address this Corinthian problem, Paul takes them all the way back to the pattern
of Christ, the words of Jesus Himself.
This is the longest recounting of any episode from the Gospels in all of Paul's epistles,
so it's pretty significant.
It indicates that, excuse me, Paul considered the Lord's Supper to be quite important.
It was one of the teachings or traditions that he had delivered to them when he taught them in person
and founded the church.
It was also a regular pattern when Christians gathered together,
recorded in three of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
Now, the main point Paul wants to drive home in this middle section is that when we celebrate the
Lord's Supper, we remember and proclaim Jesus' self-giving death on our behalf.
Verse 23, Paul says,
The Lord Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper on the night He was betrayed.
And that word betrayed can also be translated handed over.
It's actually the same word that's translated delivered earlier in that sentence.
Now, we know that Jesus was handed over or that He was betrayed by Judas,
who was present at the Last Supper, received the bread.
From Jesus' hand.
And then went out and handed Him over to His enemies.
But Paul also uses the same word in Romans chapter 8, verse 32.
He says,
God did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up, handed Him over in love for us all.
And the same Greek word is used in the Greek version of Isaiah 53, where it says,
The Lord gave Him up for our sins.
So, you see, it's not just that Judas handed Jesus over, but it was also the plan of God the Father to give up His Son.
Not in betrayal, as Judas did.
Not in hatred and in darkness, but in love for us and in faithfulness to His plan.
But what Paul wants to point out is that Jesus wasn't just betrayed by Judas,
or He wasn't just the instrument of God the Father's will.
He willingly gave His own life.
Jesus freely gave His own life in love for us.
He took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and freely gave it to His disciples.
Now, when Jesus did that, He was acting as the host of a Passover meal.
And that was what the host was expected to do at the beginning of the meal.
The host would take bread, unleavened bread, give thanks to God who had provided it,
break it, and give it to those who were present.
But then Jesus said,
This bread signifies my body, which I will offer willingly up to God in thanksgiving,
and give on your behalf when I die on the cross tomorrow.
You see, during Passover, they ate only unleavened bread.
It was called the bread of affliction, the bread of suffering,
because the people of Israel had left Egypt in haste.
In other words, their salvation had come only through suffering.
That's what they remembered by taking that bread.
And Jesus was saying,
Your salvation will come only through My suffering,
through My body, which is for you.
Offered in your place and on your behalf.
And in the same way,
Jesus took the cup after supper and freely gave it to His disciples,
saying,
This cup is the new covenant in My blood.
Again, at Passover, the Jewish people remembered,
not just how they had left Egypt,
but they remembered how God in His covenant faithfulness
had spared them from His judgment.
Each family was instructed to kill a lamb
and put some of the blood over the front door of their house.
And God had promised,
When I see the blood, I will pass over you,
and no plague shall befall you to destroy you.
And when Jesus gave that cup to His disciples,
He's saying,
It's My blood that will cover you.
It's My blood that will rescue you from the judgment of God.
It's My blood that I will shed that will bring you into the new covenant
that Jeremiah had promised.
One day, I will make a new covenant, the Lord says.
I will be your God, and you will be My people.
You will all know Me, from the least to the greatest,
for I will forgive your iniquity
and remember your sin no more.
And back in chapter 5 of 1 Corinthians,
Paul wrote,
Christ, our Passover Lamb,
has been sacrificed.
Let us therefore celebrate the festival.
See, the Passover festival was an annual remembrance
of what God had done for Israel,
and Jesus said,
Just as the people have eaten the Passover
in remembrance of God saving them from slavery in Egypt,
eat this bread,
and drink this cup in remembrance of Me.
Now, when the Bible talks about remembering,
it doesn't just mean thinking in our minds
about something that happened in the past.
Remembering biblically means identifying
with what happened in the past.
It's saying, that's part of my story too.
I wouldn't be here today without it.
That's how the Israelites were supposed to treat the Passover.
Exodus 13, Moses says,
When you come into the promised land,
and everything's going great for you,
every year when you celebrate the Passover,
you shall tell your child,
It is because of what the Lord did for me
when I came out of Egypt.
Now, this is the people, generations later,
who are living in the promised land.
They didn't physically come out of Egypt.
Right?
Except, I guess, in the body of their ancestors.
You want to use that line of reasoning.
Right?
Which is an ancient form of thinking.
But the point is,
when we look back at what Christ did on the cross,
when we eat the bread and drink the cup,
in remembrance of Him,
we're saying,
He did it for me.
He saved me by what He did way back then.
And I wouldn't be here today without it.
And I can come to the table of the Lord
because He rescued me.
And I now belong to God's family
because of what He did on the cross.
But the Lord's Supper isn't just where we receive
assurance of Jesus' love for us individually.
It's also where we celebrate our unity with one another
in the body of Christ.
Back in chapter 10, Paul said,
because there's one bread,
we who are many are one body.
Because we all eat of the one bread.
We eat together from a common table
in honor of our common Lord,
who is both our host and our feast.
That's what the Lord's Supper is about.
Remembering and identifying with Jesus
self-giving love
and His sacrifice for us.
See, Paul wanted the Corinthians to see
that the way they were celebrating
their Lord's Supper
was far out of line
with the pattern that Christ had given.
Paul says,
if you're celebrating the Lord's Supper,
even if it's being held in your home,
you're not the host.
Jesus Christ is the host.
You are the servants in His household.
So you have no authority to decide
who gets first-class treatment
and who gets second-class treatment
and who gets ignored
based on who your little clique of friends is
and who you want to please
and who has power and wealth and status
in this world.
Jesus Christ doesn't consider
any of those things
when He looks at people
and welcomes them into His family.
He welcomes all
who come to Him
in repentance and faith.
He willingly gave His body and blood
on the cross completely
for all who had come to Him.
And He graciously invites them
to feast at His table
and Paul says,
that's how you should treat one another.
According to Christ,
remembering that He is the host,
that when we gather together as a church,
whether we're celebrating
the Lord's Supper
in the more formal way that we do it,
or whether we're having a meal together
down in the Fellowship Hall,
or whether we one day combine the two
like the Corinthians did,
who knows,
we can think about it.
Paul says,
treat one another
as Christ has treated you.
So that's the pattern from Christ.
How does that apply to us today?
This is our third and final section.
Verse 27 to 34.
Now, there are two paragraphs.
Verse 27 to 33.
27 to 32.
And 33 to 34.
They both begin with the same word.
Translated, therefore, in verse 27,
and so then in verse 33.
And within each of these paragraphs,
there's one central command.
Verse 28 and verse 33.
Examine yourselves
and wait for each other,
or share with each other.
So let's focus on these two commands
as we consider some practical implications
for our community.
So I'm going to shift a little bit
from focusing on ancient Corinth
to focusing on us as a church today.
So first, examine yourself, verse 28.
Now, that command is sandwiched between two warnings.
Verse 27 warns against eating and drinking
in an unworthy manner.
Verse 29 warns against eating and drinking
without discerning the body.
Now, in the context,
the meaning of Paul's warning was clear.
Some people were eating and drinking
in a manner unworthy of the Lord,
gorging themselves
while others in the body of Christ,
even those in their local church,
were going hungry.
They were eating and drinking
without discerning the body,
that is, without recognizing rightly
their brothers and sisters
in the body of Christ
and treating them as such.
Paul says,
examine yourselves.
And he warns
that the consequences of not doing so
are very serious.
Verse 27,
you will be guilty
concerning the body and blood of the Lord.
Verse 29,
you are eating and drinking judgment
on yourself.
Verse 30,
that is why many of you
are weak and ill
and some have died.
Yikes.
We need to figure out
what's going on here.
Now, verse 30,
let me try to explain this a little bit.
There are two errors
that we can fall into
regarding sickness and sin.
Okay?
Some people have said
that all sickness
is caused by some kind of sin
or lack of faith.
This teaching can be
particularly confusing
and devastating
to people who are sick
and don't get well.
It also doesn't make sense
of many Bible passages.
For example,
why would Paul tell Timothy,
stop drinking only water
and use a little wine
because of your stomach
and your frequent illnesses
if his illnesses
were due to sin
or a lack of faith?
Other people react
against this view
and say
there is no connection
between sickness
and sin
in the New Testament.
And I think most of us
at Trinity
would probably tend
to say something like this.
If you get sick,
right,
that's,
right,
we don't immediately
think of a connection
with sin.
But then we have trouble
with passages like this
because it's pretty clear
Paul discerned
whether it was
a prophetic insight
or whether he just knew
more information
than we do.
he discerned
a connection
between
the unhealthy divisions
in the Corinthian church
and the physical illnesses
and even premature death
that some of the believers
had experienced.
Now,
how do we understand this?
I think we need to understand it
in light of Hebrews 12.
Hebrews 12 says
God disciplines His children
for our good.
And sometimes
that discipline
takes the form
of painful correction.
Now,
we should not assume
the Bible does not teach
that every sickness
is caused by
some kind of sin
or lack of faith.
But,
I think physical sickness
should cause us
to examine ourselves.
Isn't it true
that sometimes
God uses sickness
to humble us
in our pride
or to make workaholics
like me
take a Sabbath rest?
or to call us
back to Himself
when we've become
distracted
by the riches
and worries
and cares
of this life?
Or to reconnect us
to the body of Christ
and let other people
help us
when we've isolated ourselves
and wouldn't want to ask
for help on our own?
Paul says
we should examine ourselves
and see that sometimes
that's what God
might be doing
but not
assume that that's
what's going on
all the time.
So,
Paul's warning is
examine yourselves
so that your community
won't be judged
by the Lord.
That means
sort of disciplined
by the Lord
but remember
when the Lord
judges us
in the way
the word is used here
He's disciplining us.
He's not condemning us.
He's not
ultimately destroying us
if we belong to Christ
but that's
but He's warning us
and correcting us
even through a painful process.
Paul says
if you would examine yourselves
you would avoid the pain.
You'd avoid some pain
if you would examine yourselves.
Now,
so that's sort of the warning.
Let's go back
to the command
examine yourself
and let me give
a few practical applications.
Two do's
and two don'ts.
First,
when we come to the Lord's table
do
examine
your relationship
with the Lord
and your relationship
with others
in the body of Christ.
Now,
if you're here
if you're not a Christian
if you don't identify
with Christ at all
then
please don't take
the bread and the cup
when they're passed around.
We're not trying
we're not meaning to
exclude you.
We're glad
that you've come
to join us.
It simply wouldn't
be authentic.
It simply wouldn't
be a right
it's an act
that has a spiritual meaning.
It means
I'm trusting in Christ
and I want to be loyal
to Him.
If you've been
but use the time
when we pass out
the bread
and pass out the cup
to consider
the message
of Christianity
to ask yourself
what's holding me back?
why don't I
identify with Christ?
What's hindering me
from doing that?
Take the time
for
to ask yourself
those questions.
But
maybe you have
previously identified
as a Christian
perhaps you grew up
in the church
but
you may
but you're living
in what the Bible
calls
unrepentant sin.
Now that means
there's some area
of your life
where you are refusing
to confess
your sin
and ask
for God's help
to move forward
in a godly way.
Or maybe
there's someone
in the body of Christ
with whom you have
an unresolved conflict
and you're refusing
to do your part
to seek
reconciliation.
Maybe you've hurt
someone in the past
and you know it
but you haven't
asked forgiveness.
Maybe you've been
wronged and hurt
and maybe you need
to either overlook
and forgive
or lovingly confront.
Paul says
examine yourselves.
If that's you
when you come
to the Lord's table
Jesus invites you
to come to Him
as you are
and open your hands
and receive from Him
the grace you need
to do
what He's calling you
to do.
But there is a warning.
If you have
every intention
of continuing
in unrepentant sin
and don't want
God's help
to turn away from it.
If you are
refusing to
deal with
a conflict
and you're
continuing
in strife
and discord
with your neighbors
Paul says
don't eat
the Lord's Supper.
That would be
hypocritical.
Paul says
examine yourselves.
Take a second look.
Take an honest look.
So we should
examine ourselves
as to our
relationship
with the Lord
and with others
in the body
of Christ.
But second
don't
fall into
morbid
and despairing
introspection.
Some of you
may be keenly aware
of your own sins
and failures
from the past.
Maybe you're
struggling with
sinful desires
and habits
in the present.
when you look
at verse 27
and verse 28
you might think
I should never
receive communion
because I will
never be worthy
and when I take
an honest look
and examine myself
I only see
how great
my sin is.
Well if that's you
listen to the words
of John Calvin.
He says
if you are serious
in your intention
to aspire to
the righteousness
of God
to seek
to live a holy life
and if humbled
by the knowledge
of your own
wretchedness
you fall back
upon the grace
of Christ
and rest upon it
be assured
that you are a guest
worthy of approaching
this table
for faith
even if imperfect
makes the unworthy
worthy.
Jesus said
anyone who comes
to me
I will never
drive away.
Come to me
all who are weary
and burdened
not just by our burdens
but also by our sins
come to him
he says
I'll give you rest
to come
take
and eat
receive his grace
ask him for the help
that you need.
You know
maybe you've fallen
into serious sin
maybe you've had
a terrible week
the solution
to that
is don't stay
in the dark
come into the light
confess your sin
to the Lord
repent
and receive
his promise
of forgiveness
find a mature
brother or sister
in the Lord
and confess your sin
to them
and ask them
to pray for you
so that you can be
healed and made whole
according to James 5 16
ask the mature
Christians
for accountability
and wisdom
and support
as you're seeking
to follow Christ
and fighting
against temptation
don't try to fight
the battle
alone
so first
do examine
ourselves
second
don't
fall into despair
third
do let the body
of Christ
play its proper
role
in the self-examination
process
now verse 28
Paul says
let a person
examine himself
he's talking about
an individual believer
here
but in other passages
such as
1 Corinthians 5
and 2 Corinthians 2
Paul teaches
that the church
as a whole
and its leaders
in particular
have a responsibility
to discern
as far as we can tell
who belongs
to Christ
and therefore
should take
the bread
and the cup
and who doesn't
and shouldn't
and the normal way
that the church
publicly proclaims
that you belong
to Jesus Christ
is by baptizing
them
that person
and receiving them
into what we call
church membership
so
if
for some reason
you normally
take communion
but you haven't
been baptized
in any way
shape or form
you should be baptized
because it doesn't
make sense
to take one
and not the other
now I know
baptism seems
a lot more
intimidating
than
just taking communion
when the trays
are passed around
you can take
the bread
and the cup
and nobody
will notice
but if you get
up here
and get all wet
in front of everybody
everybody's going
to see you
and some of you
are anxious
because you see
people who stand
up here
and give eloquent
testimonies
of the Lord's
work in their lives
that speech
is optional
let me make
that clear
what's essential
is to obey
the command
of Jesus
to be baptized
in the name
of the Father
and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit
and when you're
standing up here
it's
you're
God's affirming
his promise
to you
in front of
everyone else
you don't have
to just sort of
hide in the
corner of the church
and always sit
behind a pillar
right
he welcomes you
as a child
whom he loves
he's cleansed you
from your sins
that's what baptism
proclaims
and represents
and celebrates
so baptism
is a wonderful
thing
don't miss out
if you haven't
been baptized
but you believe
in Christ
come and talk
to one of the elders
we'd love to help
you prepare
for baptism
if you're in the
youth group
talk to Pastor Nick
on the other end
if for some reason
you're a baptized believer
in Jesus Christ
but for some reason
you have stopped
taking communion
please come and talk
with one of the elders
again whatever the
reason is
we want to help
you work through
that and pursue
Christ in whatever
way you need to
so don't just
don't just work
through that alone
we want to help
you
so do examine
yourself
don't despair
do let the body
of Christ have
its proper role
fourth
don't miss
Paul's main
point
by fixating
on later church
controversies
over the Lord's
Supper
now two of the
main concerns
that have divided
churches over the
centuries are these
one how often
should we do it
and two
how do we understand
Christ's presence
in the elements
Paul here
and the New Testament
generally
does not seem
particularly concerned
to define a precise
answer to either
of those questions
as to the question
of frequency
there's simply
no explicit command
in the New Testament
Paul says
as often as you eat
this bread
and drink the cup
the principle
seems to be
regularly
some churches
do it weekly
some churches
do it monthly
should we celebrate
it more often
at Trinity
maybe
we are today
maybe we'll continue
doing it a little
more often
than once a month
we'll see
we certainly
won't do it less
if you're concerned
about that
I think if anything
our general tendency
is to undervalue
the Lord's Supper
rather than overvalue
it
there are problems
on both sides
but Paul is also
not particularly
concerned
to define
how Christ
is present
in the Lord's Supper
now if you want
an answer
here's a brief answer
is the bread
the physical body
of Jesus Christ
no
Jesus bodily
ascended into heaven
and he is seated
at the right hand
of God the Father
but is Jesus Christ
really present
when we eat the bread
and drink the cup
you bet he is
he promised to be
by his Holy Spirit's
power
and he's here
to nourish
and strengthen
and gladden
and unite our hearts
so that we can love him
and worship him
with joy
and live for him
with abandon
if you want a good
explanation
excuse me
if you want a good
explanation
of how it all works
read the chapter
in Calvin's
Institutes
Calvin's right
on almost everything
not quite
okay
but you don't have
to understand
exactly how
the Lord's Supper
works
it's like medicine
you don't have
to understand
all the chemical
mechanics
for the medicine
to make a difference
you do have
to take it
and follow
the doctor's orders
Jesus said
take the medicine
receive it
with repentance
and faith
and it'll help
you grow in love
but don't miss
Paul's main point
by focusing on
such controversies
Paul's main point
is a point
that has been
neglected
through much
of church history
Paul says
taking the Lord's
Supper together
should push us
should shape
our relationships
with each other
in the body
of Christ
in particular
it should push us
towards
embodying
the self-giving
generosity
that Jesus
has displayed
and given
to us
when we take
the bread
and take
the cup
we celebrate
Christ gave
himself for us
and we had
nothing
to commend
ourselves
to him
and Paul says
be careful
make sure
you honor
the people
who are your
brothers and
sisters in Christ
who have nothing
to commend
themselves to you
who have
little status
in the eyes
of this world
who aren't
your close friends
who you think
might be a little
weird
but they're
your brother
or sister
in Christ
honor
and welcome
them
because Christ
is the host
here
and we live
by his
rules
and the only
distinction
that is made
is based on
your relationship
to him
and Christ
says we're
one in the
body of Christ
John Christ
Christ
the fourth
century preacher
said this
he said
do you wish
to honor
the body
of Christ
he lived
in a society
where there
was sort
of a high
church view
of the Lord's
supper
he says
do you wish
to honor
the body
of Christ
don't
ignore him
when he
is cold
and naked
do not
pay him
homage
in the
church
building
only to
neglect
him
outside
he who
said
this is
my body
take and
eat
in remembrance
of me
is the
same one
who said
whatever
you did
to the
least
of my
brothers
and sisters
you did
also to
me
so honor
him
with this
honor
which he
himself
has ordained
spending
your wealth
on the
poor
honor
your
brothers
and sisters
let us
honor one
another
by sharing
with one
another
by being
generous
as Christ
has been
generous
to us
may the
Lord's
supper
shape
us
as we
reflect
on
Christ
generosity
to us
may it
reflect
may that
be the
outcome
for us
let me
close with
a challenge
from a
modern
commentator
on 1 Corinthians
Richard Hayes
he says
as long as
some
Christians
go hungry
the Lord's
supper
should call
us to
share
our bread
with those
in need
somehow
we have
made
the Lord's
supper
into a
tidy
right
disconnected
from real
eating
and drinking
consequently
it is
hard
for many
economically
comfortable
Christians
to envision
the connection
between the
Lord's table
and the
needs of
the poor
to discern
the body
means to
perceive
the connection
between
ourselves
and our
brothers and
sisters
in Christ
if we
discern
the body
rightly
we will
express
our
oneness
in Christ
by sharing
what God
has given
us
to eat
and drink
with joy
let us
pray
Lord we
thank you
that by your
grace you
welcome us
to come
to your
table
we pray
that we
would receive
the bread
and the cup
with joy
as we
proceed to
take it
now
in Christ's
name we
pray
amen
well now
since you've
heard about
the Lord's
supper
now we
get to
take it
and receive
it with
strength