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As you can tell from the table that is set before us, we will be partaking of the Lord’s Supper this morning. So since that is the case, I think it is a good idea for us to spend some time talking about what that means. There are two reasons why that’s a good idea for us this morning. The first reason will apply to most of us here. Most of us have been in church for a long time. And when we’ve been in church a long time, the things we do in church can become a habit. Things that we do begin to lose their meaning. The songs and prayers and symbols become so familiar that we just spout them off out of habit. Before we know it we can become like robots that have been programmed to go through the motions. It’s almost like when you drive the same route every day. You do that day after day and week after week until you become numb to it. Then one day you get home and realize you were so zoned out during your drive that you can’t remember anything about it. Do you ever get home from church feeling like that? What did we sing this morning? What did the choir sing for a call to worship? What did Sandy play for the offertory? What is our Scripture passage? We can get into such a routine that we go on autopilot. For those of us who have been in the church for a long time, the Lord’s Supper can get like that. We like to say that we don’t celebrate the Lord’s Supper every week like some denominations do so that it won’t become an empty ritual that we do out of habit. That’s true. That’s the reason why we don’t have it every week. But is it any different if we only have it once a month? Is it any different if we only have it once a quarter like we do? Not if we allow it to become routine for us. There is always a danger of that—no matter how often we have it. But that’s just one of the dangers for us this morning. The other danger is that all of us haven’t been in the church a long time. Some of us have come from different backgrounds. I was told a story about a Muslim man in our community who went to church a few weeks ago. He had never set foot in a church before. Well, the Sunday that he went happened to be a Sunday when the church was baptizing a young person. He could not understand why that preacher was being so mean to that person. Now—think of it from the perspective of a person who had never seen a baptism before. He couldn’t see the water. He sees the pastor standing in a window next to a young person. Then all of a sudden, he grabs the person by the face and pushes him down. Then he pulls him back up and everybody seems to be happy about it. Wouldn’t that be confusing? The Lord’s Supper is the same way. If you are here this morning and don’t know anything about it, it will look very strange to you. They call it a supper, but all they eat are these little tiny stale crackers. And then they don’t even give you enough juice to wash it down with. And why does everybody look like they’re at a funeral? It’s not a new problem. As a matter of fact, it’s a problem that’s as old as the church itself. Within the first century of the church, the Romans were persecuting Christians for being cannibals. Do you know why? Because they talked about eating flesh and drinking blood during their Lord’s Suppers. They were also persecuting them for having orgies. Do you know why? Because they had fellowship meals right before the Lord’s Supper. They called those fellowship meals “love feasts.” Now, I don’t think we’ll have anybody accusing us of being cannibals or having orgies this morning. But there is a possibility that you might not have a clue what we’re doing here. And there is also a possibility that you might be so familiar with what we’re doing that you’re just going through the motions. That’s why we need to see what the Bible has to say about it this morning. Our passage this morning is toward the end of a letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to the church he had planted a few years before in the city of Corinth. He had stayed with them for about a year and a half and then moved on to plant other churches. The city of Corinth was an extremely immoral city. It was so bad that even its name became synonymous with immorality. If somebody said that you were acting like a Corinthian, it was a bad thing. The good thing was that Paul planted a growing church there. The bad thing was that the people in that church had a hard time letting go of their past. Things were in check while Paul was there, but they went downhill in a hurry after he left. In his letters, he had to deal with everything from bad teaching to sexual immorality. They were messing up a lot of stuff. And one of the things that they were messing up was the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper. Paul wrote this section to deal with that problem. In it he shows us three things concerning the Lord’s Supper. He shows us the abuse of the Lord’s Supper, the act of the Lord’s Supper and the attitude of the Lord’s Supper. First, he points out how the church at Corinth had been abusing the Lord’s Supper. Look back at verses 17-22:
1 CORINTHIANS 11:17-22
The abuse of the Lord’s Supper. Have you ever gotten a letter that scolded you? That’s what Paul is doing here. He starts verse 17 by basically saying that he’s not happy with them. And the reason that he’s not happy with them is the way that they are treating the Lord’s Supper. We have to understand how they celebrated the Lord’s Supper in the early church. They would come together for a time of corporate worship and preaching and teaching. That might take hours. But then when it was finished, they wouldn’t just shake hands and go home. They would have dinner on the grounds. They would all stick around for a big fellowship dinner. Actually, it was meant to be for more than just a social event. Have you noticed that that’s what we think of when we think of fellowship? We think of a social event. That’s not what fellowship meant to them. Fellowship was sharing. Those who had shared with those who didn’t have. And there were plenty of people who didn’t have. Publicly professing your faith in Christ would often mean that your pagan boss would fire you. And it wasn’t like you could go down to the unemployment office in those days. There was no such thing as food stamps. If you didn’t work, you didn’t eat. And when you became a Christian, many times you couldn’t work. But that wasn’t the case with everybody in Corinth. Corinth was a multicultural city. They were tolerant for the most part. But fellowship meant that those who still had an income were supposed to share with those who were struggling. Did you know that it still means the same thing? Fellowship is more than just shaking hands and being nice to each other. It means that we are involved in each other’s lives. When one hurts, we’re all supposed to hurt. When one rejoices, we’re all supposed to rejoice. But that wasn’t going on in Corinth. The fellowship was broken. They weren’t sharing in each other’s lives. Why? Because verse 18 says that there were divisions among them. That word “divisions” is an interesting one. The original word is the word we get the word “schism” from. It literally means “to split” or to “rip apart.” Paul had been getting reports that the people in Corinth were ripping each other apart. It was a church split where nobody was leaving. They weren’t leaving because they didn’t have any place else to go. Today, it seems that many times church rippers just get mad and go someplace else. The problem is, they carry that schismatic heart with them into their new church. It seems that the reports Paul was getting might have been exaggerated a little bit. That’s why verse 18 says that he only partly believed what he had heard. But even though things might not have been as completely hopeless as he had heard, he knew that there were problems. He knew that there were schismatics there—people who were ripping the church apart. Verse 19 says that there were also heretics there. Heretics are people who believe wrong doctrine. What is interesting to me is that Paul pretty much leaves them alone. He says that the heretics will always be there. As a matter of fact, in verse 19, he says that them being there is a good thing. It’s a good thing because their bad doctrine forces people to seek the truth. Think about it. When somebody tells you something that doesn’t square with what you believe, what do you do? You try to refute it. And if you can’t refute it, it forces you to go back to the Bible to see what the real answer is. That is one of the reasons that the Lord allows tares to grow up among the wheat. That’s also one of the reasons that denominations are a good thing. If we didn’t have to defend the truth, we wouldn’t have to learn it and study it. We’d become lazy in our beliefs. So in this passage, Paul wasn’t that concerned about the heretics. He was concerned about the people causing divisions among them. He was concerned with the schismatics. Schismatics were killing their fellowship. They were killing their gatherings. They were killing their church. And they were killing the meaning of the Lord’s Supper. No wonder Paul was scolding them. Do you think he would scold us or praise us? We are friendly. We share some really good meals and fun things together. In a few minutes, we’re going to share the Lord’s Supper together. But let me ask you something. Is there someone here that you will not sit at the same fellowship table with? Is there someone here that you don’t speak to? Is there something that you won’t do in the church if you think that they’re going to be there? If there is, then how in the world can you sit in the same congregation and take the Lord’s Supper with them? I don’t care if you’re sitting on opposite ends of the sanctuary—if Jesus has saved you, you are still part of His body. Notice that Paul didn’t go into any details about why the schismatics were being divisive. It didn’t matter. He didn’t care who was to blame. He didn’t care who started it. He didn’t care how long it had been going on. All he cared about was that there was division in their fellowship. And by allowing that division to remain, verse 22 says that the people were showing that they despised the church of God. Do you despise the church of God? If there is a schism between you and another person in this church you do. And there are some serious consequences for that. We’re going to skip over verses 23-26 for right now and come back to them in a minute. But for now, let’s look at the attitude of the Lord’s Supper in verses 27-34:
1 CORINTHIANS 11:27-34
The attitude of the Lord’s Supper. Do you realize how serious this is? This isn’t just some ritual. This isn’t just some way to get something from God. The Lord’s Supper is about unbroken fellowship within the body of Christ. There are a couple of different ways to look at verse 27. You can look at it like most of us look at it. And that’s that if we take the Lord’s Supper with unconfessed sin in our lives, it’s like we’re hanging Jesus on the cross ourselves. There is an element of that. But in the context of the passage, it actually is more specific than that. When Jesus saves us, the Bible says that we are now His body. Just a few verses from our passage in 1 Corinthians 12:12-13, Paul says, “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.” Like it or not, when Jesus saves us, we are all saved together into one body. And as the body of Christ, we are called to join in communion with each other and with Him around this Lord’s Table. These elements are pictures of His body and blood. And if we take of those elements at the same time we are having division with another part of His body—we are guilty of ripping the very body of Christ apart. That’s why the Lord’s Supper is a time of self examination. But not only is it a time of self examination, it’s a time of corporate examination. Schism isn’t secret. You might not be the one in schism, but you can talk to the one who is. You can pray with the one who is. You can encourage the one who is. You can bring them together. You can be a peacemaker. You can be a healer. Because, if schism and division continues to exist in the church, there are serious consequences. Look at the series of pictures here. God gives us all these pictures and we still don’t get it. Jesus’ physical body was destroyed on the cross so that we might be saved and become His body. When we have division and schism amongst us, we are destroying His body again. And as a result, many among us will have our physical bodies destroyed. We pray for the sick and afflicted among us all the time. Do you ever stop to think that their sickness might be a result of our schisms and divisions? Is that harsh? Is that hard to deal with? Do I know of any specific divisions? No—do you? If you do, will you do something about it? What does verse 31 say? If we will judge ourselves, we won’t be judged. Now, if you don’t do anything about it, are you going to lose your salvation? Verse 32 says you won’t. We will still be the body of Christ. But He will chasten us. He will spank us. I don’t want to be chastened. I want this local body of Christ to be whole. I don’t want people in this body to be chastened with physical sickness because I have too much pride to ask my brother or sister for forgiveness. Do you?
And that brings us to the act of the Lord’s Supper in verses 23-26. But before we get to the act, I want to give you a chance to respond to what you’ve heard.
I’ve recently had a schism with a brother and sister that, through the help of some godly people pointing it out, we’ve been able to make right. I want that for all of us. I don’t really care who is right or who is wrong. Because the bottom line is, we’re all wrong. We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. None of us are faultless. If it was not for the grace of God as shown on the cross of Calvary, we would all be standing equally guilty before His judgment—the condemnation with the world that Paul talks about in verse 32. I know that there are schisms in this church. I don’t know what they are specifically, but I know because there are schisms in every church. They might not be on the surface. They might be from last week or from 20 or 30 years ago. I don’t know what they are and I don’t know who they are between. But the time to clear them up is now. This time doesn’t have to be a history lesson. You don’t have to dig it all up again. Jesus didn’t dig up all of your past when He saved you, did He? All He did was forgive you. While you were still in your sin and cared nothing about Him, He died for you and awakened faith in you and saved you. He took your sin upon Himself. And He clothed you in His righteousness. And through His Spirit, He has empowered you to forgive others like He forgave you. He has empowered you to heal the divisions and schisms and set things back in order. So now is the time. I am going to pray. As I pray, the music will sound. Even as I pray, I would ask that you seek out the schisms and divisions in your life. Seek them out and ask their forgiveness. Pray with them and allow the Lord to heal the divisions. If they aren’t here, then come to this altar. Come pray with me. Make it public. Let the healing begin. Let’s pray.
