Tuesday, March 27, 2012

"Lord's Supper 101" Sermon: I Corinthias 11:17-34


“Lord’s Supper 101”

[I Corinthians 11:17-34]

March 25, 2012 Second Reformed Church

            One final time in our series on Church growth, let us litanize – now – our five foci or principles of Church growth:

If we want to grow as individuals and the Church, the Word of God must be central to our life and worship.

            If we want to grow as individuals and the Church, we must obey Jesus and evangelize.  Each of us must tell others the Gospel:  Jesus came to earth, lived, died for our sins, and physically rose from the dead.

            If we want to grow as individuals and the Church, we must engage in regular hospitality and fellowship with non-Christians and our fellow Christians.

            If we want to grow as individuals and the Church, we must pray rightly, privately, and corporately.

            And today, our text shows that if we want to grow as individuals and the Church, we must receive the Lord’s Supper frequently, properly, and worthily.  If we want to grow as individuals and the Church, we must receive the Lord’s Supper frequently, properly, and worthily.  

            We may remember that the Church at Corinth was a mess.  They were a Christian Church, but, perhaps in part because they were on a major trade route, they repeatedly strayed and adopted false teachings and allowed sin to flourish – such that we have two letters of Paul to the Corinthians correcting them – teaching them to obey what Christianity teaches.  If they were professing to be Christians, they ought to believe and act like Christians.

            Just before this morning’s text, Paul has a rare commendation of the Corinthians, in that they understood and practiced the Christian teaching of submission to Christ and spiritual headship in the home and church.  That gives us some insight into the turn of events as our text begins, because Paul then writes:

            “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.”

            Paul begins this section by not commending them – by rebuking and instructing them, because they were sinning.  Paul says that when they came together as the church for worship – they were not united – they were divided.  There were divisions over various issues in the church, and everyone knew it.

            In chapter 12 of I Corinthians, Paul goes on to explain that the Church is the Body of Christ, and the Body cannot be divided and function properly, much less live.  We cannot cut off our toes, or our arm, or our head, and expect to function properly as the Body.  Each of us is different, and each of us has been gifted and blessed differently.  That is because, together, we make up the Church in this place, just as the Corinthians did in Corinth.  God gives us the people we need in the Church to be the Church where we are. 

Division among Christians – among things that do not concern salvation – is not right or good or healthy.  We ought not to divide from each other over our understanding of whether Baptism ought to be administered through immersion or sprinkling, or whether the organ is an appropriate musical instrument for worship, or whether or not women may wear pants.  We are to be united in Christ and the Salvation He gives us and be willing to work together for His Sake and the Sake of the Kingdom, allowing for us to have differences on things that don’t matter eternally.

However, Paul goes on to then say that there must be divisions in the Church.  And Paul did not have a multiple-personality disorder – when it comes to the Doctrine of Salvation – when it comes to the question of whether or not Salvation is Only by Jesus Alone, if some say “yes” and others say “no,” there must be division, and it is good that there is, because Christianity teaches that there is Only Salvation in Jesus Alone.  Anyone who denies that is not a Christian.

John wrote approvingly of some who left the church over the understanding of how a person is right with God – about salvation, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us” (1 John 2:19, ESV).

When it comes to salvation, believers must divide from unbelievers – and sometimes there will be people in the church for years, who appear to be believers, and then, one day, will speak their heart, and we will know that they never believed.  That kind of division proves who is one of us.  Other division is sin.

“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.”

Here we find that the division was over the Lord’s Supper and how some were abusing it.  Some were coming to worship every day, rushing to the front, and consuming the bread and the wine with a perverse gluttony.  They we stealing the elements of the Lord’s Supper – consuming them all themselves – not allowing others to receive them, and in so doing, they were getting drunk during worship.

Let us remember, the Lord’s Supper was held in people’s homes.  There were no churches yet.  They worshipped in the Temple with the Jews – every day – and they worshipped in their homes, receiving the Lord’s Supper, whenever they came together to worship.  So, a smaller group of people were coming together in individual homes to worship and received the Lord’s Supper, and some were getting there and drinking all the wine and eating all the bread, being gluttons and drunkards and depriving their brothers and sisters of receiving the Sacrament.  Paul rightly tells them this is sin and must stop.

What do we learn positively from this account?  First, we learn that the original Church received the Lord’s Supper whenever – as often as – they gathered together for worship.  Receiving the Lord’s Supper was a normal and regular part of every worship service.

Why would they do that?

            “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.”

            First, the Church received the Lord’s Supper every time they gathered to show that they were united in faith and belief – even in One Body.         

Paul wrote, “so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another” (Romans 12:5, ESV).  “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread” (1 Corinthians 10:17, ESV).  “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:12-13, ESV).

In recognizing and confessing before each other that we are One Body, we confess our responsibility and care for one another:  “But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together” (1 Corinthians 12:24b-26, ESV).

Second, the Church received the Lord’s Supper every time they gathered to show that they were united in Christ and His Gospel.

Paul wrote, “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his” (Romans 6:5, ESV).  “Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love” (Ephesians 4:15-16, ESV).

In receiving the One Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper together, all equal before our God and Savior, we confess that He is our Head, our Life, and we are responsible for one another.

Third, the Church received the Lord’s Supper every time they gathered to witness to the Jews – and the world – that the Covenant given by God through the Temple sacrifices was fulfilled in Jesus. 

The author of Hebrews explained, “For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him” (Hebrews 9:24-28, ESV).

In receiving the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper together, we confess that the Passover has been fulfilled in Jesus, so there is never to be another blood sacrifice; Jesus is the Final Blood Sacrifice for sin.

Second, we learn that the original Church received the Lord’s Supper properly.

“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.”

We see the Church receiving the Lord’s Supper properly in at least four ways:

First, the Church received the Lord’s Supper properly by using the words of institution that Jesus gave.

As we are invited to receive the Lord’s Supper, we repeat the words that Jesus said as He took the Passover meal and made it into the New Sacrament – after the New Covenant – of the Lord’s Supper.  We remember that Jesus said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”  We remember that Jesus said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”    It is important that we remember the words that Jesus actually used to found the Lord’s Supper that we might understand it and practice it properly.

Secondly, in that immediate context – that of when Jesus first gave the words, the Church received the Lord’s Supper properly as they remembered that Jesus was crucified for the sins of all those that would believe.  Jesus’ Blood was really shed and His Body was really broken, and we are to remember that that event really happened – and it is through that historical event that the sins of everyone who would ever believe in Jesus were forgiven.

Third, the Church received the Lord’s Supper properly as they did not merely remember that Jesus celebrated it, but understood that we are to continue to receive it, because Jesus meets with us in the Sacrament every time we receive it.

If the Lord’s Supper was merely a matter of remembering what happened in the past, there would be no necessity of repeating it in the now.  The fact of the matter is that Jesus spiritually meets with us in the bread and the cup and gives us grace – the ability to do all that He calls us to do.  We’ll see this more specifically in a few minutes.

But there is a fourth way in which they properly received the Lord’s Supper, and that is in receiving it as a witness to the world. 

Paul said, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.”  That means that every time we receive the Lord’s Supper, we proclaim to the world that Jesus died for the sins of everyone who will believe and He is coming back.  In receiving the Lord’s Supper, we confess, not merely to believers, but to everyone who observes us receiving, that we do not merely believe in a Gospel of forgiveness from a dead saint, but we believe in a Gospel of forgiveness of the Living God – the God, Jesus, Who is alive and returning!

            “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.”

            Thirdly, we learn that the original Church received the Lord’s Supper worthily.

Again, we understand this from what the Corinthians did wrong – and how Paul corrected them:  “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.”  What does Paul mean?  Most literally, Paul tells them – and us – if we receive the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner, we are guilty of murdering Jesus.

We see in this rebuke and warning that the Lord’s Supper cannot be merely a remembrance in which we receive mere bread and a mere cup.  Something more must be going on given the consequences that Paul enumerates.

Who is worthy of the Lord’s Supper? 

First, “Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.”  The person who is worthy of the Lord’s Supper is the person who recognizes that he or she is a sinner, believes in salvation in Jesus Alone, and repents of his or her sin.  The person who is worthy of the Lord’s Supper is the person who understands that no one is worthy of the Lord’s Supper except through Jesus Alone.  No one is worthy to receive the Sacrament, but through Jesus and His Salvation, those who believe may receive it to their benefit.

Second, to receive the Lord’s Supper worthily, one must “discern the body.”  What does that mean?  Many scholars have argued that it means we must understand where Jesus is in the Sacrament – as though it was one of those “Where’s Waldo?” puzzles.  But look at the context:  Paul has rebuked them for coming to the Sacrament – not once, but every time they gather for worship – and some are jumping ahead, gluttonously eating the brink, and drinking up the wine to the point of drunkenness.  The Body that they failed to discern was the Body of Christ – the Church.

They had come into the church and thought themselves better – more worthy – to take the bread and the wine for themselves and make a party of it.  They unrepentantly sinned in their gluttony and drunkenness, they had contempt for the other members of the Church who did not receive the elements, and they showed a distinct lack of gratitude in their “taking” rather than “receiving” the elements.

Third, in receiving the Lord’s Supper worthily, Jesus meets with us and we receive grace – power and authority to do what He has called us to do in His Name.  And, conversely, as we see in our text:  “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.”  If we do not receive the Lord’s Supper worthily, God may make us sick, and He may even kill us.

“Com’on!  It’s a little piece of pressed unleavened bread and a little cup of grape juice or wine.  How could that make you sick or kill you?”

In one sense, those of you thinking that are correct – unless you choke badly, those elements can’t hurt you.  And conversely, if you eat them without choking, they will do next to nothing for you – there’s nothing much to it nutritionally.

If the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper was a mere memorial, we could say that Paul was using hyperbole – that he was not being literally true.  But Paul was addressing the question they had of why so many people were getting sick and dying in the Corinthian Church, and his answer was, “You are receiving the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner.”

Paul tells them if they had judged themselves – if they had confessed their sin to God, they would have been forgiven.  But with their unworthy taking of the Lord’s Supper – sinning with abandon and without repentance – what ought they to have expected in profaning the Lord’s Supper?

Brothers and sisters, there is more going on in the elements than bread and cup.  In the Reformed Church, we do not believe that the elements turn into literal flesh and blood, but we do believe that Jesus Christ, our Savior, the One Almighty God, meets with us – communes with us – ministers to us – gives us His Grace – as we receive the bread and the cup in a worthy manner. 

            Lastly, Paul tells them to wait for each other – together as the Church for worship and to receive the Lord’s Supper together – all believers on an equal playing field – all receiving the same Gift of the Lord Jesus in the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper – no one getting more or less of the bread and the cup, but all parts of the Body joining together frequently, properly, and worthily. 

To confess what Jesus did in forgiving the sins of all those who would believe in Him Alone, to confess that the Passover was fulfilled in Jesus and there are no more blood sacrifices necessary or permitted, to confess that we are joined with all other believers in One Body with Jesus our Head,  to confess that Jesus will return, and to confess that Jesus meets with us in the bread and the cup in Power and Glory to minister to us to be able to do and be all that He calls us to do and be.

If we want to grow as individuals and the Church, we must receive the Lord’s Supper frequently, properly, and worthily.

Let us pray:
Almighty God, we have come into Your Presence in this sanctuary.  We have come into Your Presence through the reading and preaching of Your Word.  And we are coming into Your Presence through prayer and through the receiving of the bread and the cup, as You command us, in the Lord’s Supper.   Make us more desirous of You as we eat and drink.  For it is in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.

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