Discovering the Spirit-Filled Love XVIII, Learning At the Lord's Table

In all these things, Lord, we say, Father, I believe, help me overcome my unbelief. In all these things that we've prayed, Lord, in all these things that we hold out, Lord, we believe. Help us to overcome our unbelief that we might receive from your hand, Lord, and go on and honor you. In the mighty name of Jesus Christ, amen. In the name of Jesus, amen. You may be seated, Church. I'm turning in your Bibles tonight to 1 Corinthians for a shortened teaching, chapter 11. 1 Corinthians chapter 11. In just 20 minutes, I'm going to give you a highlight of a number of verses as they relate to the Lord's Supper. And then when we conclude, you'll have an opportunity for the next three days to deal with some of the things I'm going to share with you tonight prior to communion this Sunday morning as we gather. A man that we have had experience with in ministry in the Spirit by the name of Dale Gentry will be here. Some of you were not here two and a half years ago. You weren't here. You've never heard Dale Gentry. Look at that. We love you all. You're all the new people. That's a blessing. You'll enjoy Dale. He has a significant ministry in the Lord. Then Sunday evening, the leadership. The leadership will be meeting and encouraging all of you who are in various phases of leadership to be there at 6 p.m. for a time with Dale and myself as we leave that time. The Lord's Supper. How many sacraments are there in the church? I love questions because I love to hear them. Tell someone what you think it is. Whisper it to them. Here's the answer. It depends. That's right. There's no wrong answer here. You said 15 or something. You're out to lunch. Most of you in some form of the Catholic tradition have how many? Seven. Right. You know them? You probably do. I am ringing right out of my ear up here. Most of us from the Protestant tradition and certainly here at North Way would affirm at least two and most assuredly these two. They are baptism and the Lord's Supper. Baptism, and by the way, the Bible calls it the Lord's Supper. It doesn't call it communion. I didn't know that, but I'll talk to you about that. Baptism next Wednesday night that we celebrate is the entry sacrament. Once as a believer is all you need to be baptized. That's the sacrament. What is a sacrament? It's an outward manifestation of an inward truth. If you're taking notes, if you're preparing to forget, don't take any notes. If you want to remember, write this down. I don't mean that demeaningly. Believe me. I'm saying it because I know how slow my brain is. If I write something down, I'll remember it. If I just sit there and watch someone say it, when you reach that door, you'll forget. I don't have anything to write with. A sacrament is, there's pens back in the back too, and paper if you want them. A sacrament is an outward expression of an inward reality. The Lord's Supper is a visible expression of an inward grace. Now, this passage, I'm already frustrated, and this is going to be very difficult to do. Maybe I'll tie it together again on Sunday somehow, if I get a moment before we have communion. You see, what was taking place was the church in Corinth was meeting together and celebrating what had become an absolute mark of the New Testament church, and other religions for that matter. It was called the Love Feast, the Agape Feast. The Love Feast occurred when the church would assemble and they'd have a meal, a whole meal together, and then end that meal by celebrating the Lord's Supper. That was the final act of their time together, and this was a common practice. You read about it in Acts 2. It describes, in Acts 2, verses 42-47, it talks about that literal experience of having that Agape Feast. We used to have some of those around here. By the way, if you're in a home group, you should have Agape Feasts. You should have Love Feasts in your home group. That's a perfect size to get together. What was taking place was this celebration, which was so precious, so typical of what the church was to be, was becoming marked by a very bad attitude, something that was infiltrating. Paul says in the beginning of verse 17, in the following directives, I have no praise for you. By the way, how many were here last Wednesday? Didn't Pastor Jim talk about women in the church? Oh, well, okay. We'll skip over that. Verse 17. I knew that, Pastor Jim. I went away hoping he'd get to that, but he didn't make it. All right. Well, we'll come back to it. That'll be the first message in the new building. All right. In the following directives, I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. Could you imagine the Apostle Paul saying, hey, this meeting's hurting. This morning's helping us. What a terrible thing to have someone say about your meeting. Now, I know I've left some meetings when I've said that about myself. I did more harm than good. But Paul was saying to the whole church in the seat of Corinth, these meetings, they're destroying the work of God. In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent, I believe it. You see, he's setting a very negative tone here. Remember, what did we start 1 Corinthians with five months ago? What was the first thing we read in chapter one that was happening? There were divisions. Some were of Paul and some, Paul's, and the church was, they were setting themselves against each other. And here, later on in chapter three, we read that they were dividing themselves over theology and saying, well, you need this to be saved and this, you know. No, it's the cross of Christ. But now Paul says, and there's even divisions when you gather together to eat. Dear ones, the essence of what's happening here is that there is a conflict arising in the church between the haves and the have-nots. You know, as much as we like to say that we're all one in Christ and we don't regard each other to the flesh, back in the book of Corinthians, we find that there were those who were gathering for a potluck supper. How many of you grew up with a potluck supper tradition in your church? I tell you, there are some of the best meals you can get, right? I mean, you get stuff there that you would pay a lot of money to have somewhere. Well, the Corinthians were having a potluck supper. They were coming together, they were bringing in the stuff, all their food, and people were sitting down with their potluck supper and eating it themselves. They weren't sharing it with anybody. And what was literally taking place, the poor were coming to those meetings and not getting anything to eat. Now, imagine for a moment how that gravitated against the entire message of the gospel. You see, the message of the gospel is, God says, to give. I gave my son. In your plight, in the poverty of your sin, I gave my son. Out of his riches, I gave him to you. And now he's saying, now you're gathering together and you can't give your food to share with those who have none? He says, this is a humiliation. Look what it says, let's read together. When you come together, it's not the Lord's supper you eat, for as you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry, there it is, another gets drunk. Imagine this. What a scenario. And so the church, supposedly coming together to celebrate the grace of God, and that's a good thing to do, to celebrate the grace of God. Rather than do that, they came and they got in their little groups, and those who had ate without waiting for the others to come, and didn't leave food for those who didn't have enough, and those who had plenty to drink, drank until they were drunk. It sounds like a pretty nasty scene, doesn't it? And Paul says, right up front, he said, this is not right. Don't you have homes, verse 22, to eat and drink in, or do you despise the church of God, and humiliate those who have nothing? You know, church, let me tell you, I can't get away from how much God wants us to be sensitive to the poor and the have-nots. It is so laced in the scripture, throughout the Bible, that any time, any time you feel like you're starting to elevate yourself and get away from that, God's just going to grab you and say, wait a minute, I care about the poor. And one of the things that we have to work at here in the suburbs is remembering the poor. Because we don't always see them. You say, well, yeah, but they're there. Well, sure they are. They're poor out here in the North Hills, but they're nothing like we see in the city. Paul said, you need to love these people. Don't humiliate them. Don't, you know, pig out on your own potluck supper and let them go to the inn and have nothing. He's saying because this is an abomination of the whole principle of the Lord's Supper. Now, something very interesting happens here. Rather than going ahead and just telling them and consigning them, they're going to go to hell if they keep doing this. I mean, it sounds like he's heading in that direction, doesn't he? He said, should I praise you for this at the end of verse 22? Certainly not. Verse 23, he turns a corner, like 180 degrees, he says these very tender words, For I have received from the Lord what I also passed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. All right, we've initially looked here, number one, at the perversion of the Lord's Supper. Now we're going to look at the purpose of it, the purpose of the Lord's Supper. What really was he saying? Well, Paul says something astonishing here. I receive it from the Lord. Was Jesus alive when Paul was saved? Was he? Well, not in the way we are. He sure was alive, wasn't he? But he wasn't alive in the way we are alive. And so it's evident that Paul the apostle was receiving revelation knowledge, revelation. God was literally speaking into his heart. I've received it from the Lord and I pass it on to you. And he says to him that this sacrament of grace, this expression of an inward reality in an outward way, he said, This is for you. This is my body broken for you. What does that mean? This is my body that's broken. What is Jesus saying? Well, obviously, when he gave his life on the cross, what more could he give you? He didn't just give you principles. He didn't just give you a better way to live. You know, people who follow New Age principles and so on talk about all these higher consciousnesses and all these types. Jesus said, I'm going to give you everything. And when we hold that bread in our hands this coming Sunday, let's be reminded that that is literally a representation, an outward representation of the reality that Jesus Christ gave his body. You know, anytime you don't think you're worth something, you think you're too old or too dumb or too much of a failure for God to love you, understand something. He gave his body. And look what it says. It says, I gave my body. Look at verse 24, which is for who? For who? For you. Turn to someone and say it was for you. Tell them that, would you please? It was for you. It was for you. It was for you that he gave. You see, Paul is setting a very dramatic scene here. He is recounting the time that the disciples gathered around the table, the 12 disciples, including Judas, the betrayer. And he is being a little bit melodramatic here. And he's raising this scene when Jesus said, this is my body and this is the cup which is given for you. Why did Jesus leave heaven and come to earth? He did it for you. Why did he suffer mocking and humiliation and beating? He did it for you. Why did he go through a mock trial and face false accusations? He did it for you. And why did he hang on that cross and suffer incredible torment? He did it for you. He did it for you. Our faith, beloved, is not just a church doctrine. It's a personal encounter with a God who sent his son to die for you. And Jesus died for me and he died for you. He loves you that much. Isn't that a great message? What about the ones who don't even claim it, the ones who ignore him? It doesn't matter. He still died for them. But they've got to receive it first. And Jesus said, do this in remembrance of me. Listen now, if communion is not very important to you, listen to Jesus saying, hey, I died for you. Now you do this in remembrance. If you look at it that way, not just, hey, do this to keep your mind. No, you do it in remembrance of me and what I've done for you. Very powerful words. This Sunday when we pick up that bread and that cup, I want you to remember Jesus, what he did for you. And dear ones, something will happen in your battle against sin when you remember what he did for you. Something will happen. A strengthening will come when you remember what Jesus did. That will that you keep falling away and I just can't turn away from this habit or I can't leave this person or I can't, you know, when you see the one who died for you and you remember him, there'll be a strength, there'll be a grace upon you. I want you to know the greatest deterrent to sin is the fear of the Lord. And when you see Jesus on that cross for you, something happens. Would God die in vain that I'd go out and sin again? Remember he died for you. He loves you. So what should we do? And just because time is getting away from us, let me get down. You say this cup is the new covenant in my blood. I want to say more about that. What's the difference between the old covenant and the new? The old covenant was the law and the regulations that they were supposed to keep in order to be accepted by God. How many of you are glad that God doesn't have a rule book for you to be accepted by? Isn't that great? Whew! Poor. I would not make it. You're here and you've been checking out different churches and maybe you're not even sure where you fit. I want you to know the difference between religion. It doesn't matter how good a week you've had. How many people you led to Christ? The correct translation is in an unworthy manner. We'll be guilty of sinning against the body and the blood of the Lord. I don't want to sin against, how many of you want to sin against the body? I don't want that. Well, what are some ways that we do it unworthy? I've listed several here under preparation. This is the final point. Number one, an unworthy manner means common or flippant. I have to say, I grieve some Sundays when I lead in communion. I look out there, I see people who, young people, particularly parents, I want to urge you, you tell your young people what they're doing. If they're sitting back in the back and you're sitting over there, you tell them. When that communion comes back, you better sure well understand what you're doing. Flippant, you know Al, I've done it. If you grew up in some of the traditions, you had communion every single day. And it can become common practice to you. I don't think, probably, we celebrate communion quite enough around here. It's only maybe 15 times a year here together, but you can have communion in your home group. You say, well, doesn't a pastor have to be present? No. Isn't that great? You can have communion. You tell your home group, let's have communion tonight, and see if that fits in with what God's been showing them for that time. You can have communion in your homes, but don't ever make it flippant. Don't just throw it out on the table as some kind of little afterthought. Number two, unworthy when you just ignore it and don't have it enough. We just talked about that next. It's unworthy when you're rebellious. People come in and think, well, hey, I'll do my own thing and I'll have communion and God will accept me. No way. It is not a charm. Please don't think if you take communion somehow everything's going to work out. That's not what it does. People go to jail and they say, bring me communion down in jail. Well, that's fine. I'm not going to do anything for you unless there's faith in your heart toward Christ and a repentant spirit. Number four, dear ones, this is something for us tonight. Most of you here understand those first three. It's the fourth one that concerns me. We need to come to the communion table, to the Lord's supper, with an examined heart. And let's understand something. Perhaps we, as it says later on here, verse 29, a man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For you eat and drink without recognizing the body of the Lord. You eat and drink judgment on yourself. How many of you ever wondered where that verse met? There's a lot of ways that can go. Here's my final point so we can bring the kids in. To examine yourself and to recognize the body means this. More than anything else, it means, number one, dear God, I recognize the body of Christ. That's the whole context of this chapter. And if I have ought against my brother, if I'm holding sin, if I have an attitude problem against my brother or sister, don't take communion. It's a farce. The Bible says God can't forgive you if you won't forgive your brother or sister. And if you see your brother or sister hurting and you can do something about it and you withhold it, don't take communion. That's not recognizing the body. Don't do it. Spare yourself the judgment of God. And he says, look at this. This is terrible. That is why verse 30, many among you are weak and sick and a number have fallen asleep. And it's not talking about taking a dose. It means being taken away. Now, I personally don't think it means that they lost their salvation. I just think it means God's not playing games when it comes to communion. Now, rather than leave you on a somber note with this, understand this. The communion was given to us as a means of celebrating the grace of God. We ought to learn how to enjoy it and to gain strength and to be lifted up. And if we'll just simply heed these warnings, dear ones, every time we celebrate communion, you can find your life energized. I want to say to you, if you've been struggling, it may be because you're not communing with the Lord the way he's given this to you. This is a tangible way you can receive grace, the grace of God by faith into your life. Notice what Paul says. So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for each other. Be sensitive to each other. If someone's hungry, let them eat at home. Don't come and stuff your face at the agape feast. So that when you meet together, it may not result in judgment. And when I come, I'll give further directions. This Sunday, as we celebrate communion, I want you to arrive on Sunday having examined your life, looking at the things that we've touched on tonight. Read the passage carefully. And when we come, let's have a celebration. Let's enjoy the grace of God. Let's celebrate what he's provided for us. So that when we leave here this Sunday morning, we're going to say, Lord, I've communed with you, and you've given me power to overcome in daily life. Amen? Amen. Let's stand together. Jeff's going to come in now and lead us. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, as we see your word, there's so much in here, Lord, that I couldn't touch on tonight. But I pray that the Holy Spirit would bring great application to every single one who tonight is searching for a closer walk to you. Lord, I ask in Jesus' name, for anyone tonight that's struggling with getting things right in their life, that they'd call upon your grace and be saved. And you may be saved.