1 Corinthians 10:14-33, 1 Corinthians 11:17-34
The Lord’s Table is a continuing memorial of the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is the one thing Christians have celebrated from the very beginning. Jesus said to the early Christians concerning this, “This do in remembrance of Me.”
The whole focus of the Lord’s Table is the Lord Jesus Christ. When we allow it to become something other than that, we are disgracing the Lord Jesus Christ.
What we want to see in this is that we are celebrating not a memory alone or a point in history. We are celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The three elements go together. His death, his burial, his resurrection. You cannot separate them; you cannot have one without the other two.
We are serving a completed Savior who is not a thing of the past or even of the future, he is of the present, right now.
As we come to the Lord’s Table, we do so in honor of this one that we are serving and worshiping.
To understand the dimensions of the Lord’s Table is to fully grasp the character and nature of our Christian experience. Not only are we celebrating Christ and honoring him, we also are celebrating the fruit of his death, burial and resurrection, which is Christianity. A life delivered from sin.
Today in our culture, we have all kinds of memorials. We like to celebrate aspects of history and people who have made history. And that’s wonderful and well and good. But our memorials today have to do with things of the past and people who have long since gone.
The difference in the Lord’s Table memorial is that we are celebrating a present reality. Once I begin to understand that this is part of my life today, I begin to have a different perspective and outlook on life.
Notice how Paul puts it in Romans 8:11 – “But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.”
If you are a Christian then you have within you that same Spirit, the Holy Spirit, that raised Jesus from the dead. To really understand that is to change my thinking about my Christian experience.
My Christian experience does not rest upon my strength or knowledge but rather upon the Holy Spirit. The more I get to know the Holy Spirit the more I will begin to appreciate what it truly means to be a Christian.
This Lord’s Table sets before us the dimensions of what the Christian life is all about. Let me try to lay it out for you and apply it to our hearts and lives this morning.
I. The Warning to Me
1 Corinthians 10:16-17,
“16 When we give thanks for the fruit of the vine at the Lord’s supper, are we not sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread we eat at the Lord’s supper, are we not sharing in the body of Christ? 17 There is one bread, and many of us Christians make up the body of Christ. All of us eat from that bread.”
I believe the basic warning here to me personally is that I’m not in this alone. There are no Lone Ranger Christians. We must understand and appreciate the fellowship that we have with brothers and sisters in the Lord.
Too many Christians are trying to live the Christian life on their own strength and it is not working. God never intended for us to struggle in our own strength, but rather to experience the amazing grace of God.
Paul makes a comment in this passage where he says, “Are we not sharing in the body of Christ?”
To come to the communion table and share in the elements is to celebrate the union that we have in Jesus Christ. We must appreciate one another because we all are on the same level.
The Lord’s Table does not have divisions about it.
This is what Paul says in 11:18.
“First of all, I hear that when you meet together in the church you are divided into groups and you argue. I almost believe this is true.”
To have divisions in the church is to mock God’s grace. God’s grace does not affect one group different from another group.
Divisions started in the heart of the devil himself.
I cannot imagine how much he hates the Lord’s Table. Everything that the Lord’s Table is, is a symbol of that which the devil hates with a hellish hatred.
If only we could understand that these divisions come from the devil, we would stand up against it to the glory of God.
We have an attitude among many Christians that if you do not believe exactly the way I do I cannot have fellowship with you.
Watchman Nee was a Plymouth Brethren and was a remarkable preacher and writer. However, one time he celebrated the Lord’s Table with a group of people who weren’t actually Plymouth Brethren. Because of that, the Plymouth Brethren kicked him out of their fellowship.
Imagine Watchman Nee being kicked out of a fellowship. If there were someone I would long to fellowship with, it would be him. But because he fellowshipped with the group that didn’t believe exactly, letter by letter, with the Plymouth Brethren group he couldn’t be part of their group.
I believe there are certain fundamental truths that cannot be deviated from. Truths that define who we are as Christians and our relationship with God.
Outside of that, there are many different viewpoints about certain doctrines.
I don’t want to have fellowship with someone who believes exactly, word by word, the way I believe. What good is that?
One of my best friends is an Episcopalian priest and he is what is called a high churchman. He delights in all of the rituals of the church and is quite adept at it. He lives by the prayer book.
I am what you would call a low churchman. I’m not too fascinated by rituals and stuff like that.
But we do not base our fellowship upon what we believe, we base our fellowship upon whom we believe.
I don’t have to believe exactly as you leave two have fellowship with you in order to pray together, celebrate the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The warning to me is simply that I need to embrace the fellowship of God’s people in honor of Jesus Christ. To be divisive in my fellowship is to dishonor Christ.
1 Corinthians 11:26-32,
“26 Every time you eat this bread and drink from this cup you are telling of the Lord’s death until He comes again. 27 Anyone who eats the bread or drinks from the cup, if his spirit is not right with the Lord, will be guilty of sinning against the body and the blood of the Lord. 28 This is why a man should look into his own heart and life before eating the bread and drinking from the cup. 29 Anyone who eats the bread and drinks from the cup, if his spirit is not right with the Lord, will be guilty as he eats and drinks. He does not understand the meaning of the Lord’s body. 30 This is why some of you are sick and weak, and some have died. 31 But if we would look into our own lives and see if we are guilty, then God would not have to say we are guilty. 32 When we are guilty, we are punished by the Lord so we will not be told we are guilty with the rest of the world.”
II. The Witness to Others
We earnestly believe that our fellowship with other believers is a wonderful witness to the world around us. If they see that we love each other, it will be a testimony that they cannot refuse.
Our fellowship is a reflection of our relationship with God. No matter how you slice it, if we cannot get along with one another it is an indication that there is something between God and us.
Listen to how John the Beloved states it in his epistle.
1 John 3:14 – “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.”
1 John 4:20 – “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?”
1 John 4:21 – “And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.”
According to John, if we are Christians, we do not have an option to not love our brother. This is our testimony to the world around us that we are reflecting God’s love in us on our brothers and sisters around us.
III. The Worship to God
Jesus said, “This do in remembrance of me.”
When we come to the Lord’s Table, we are coming for no other reason than to worship God.
1 Corinthians 10:18-22
“18 Look at the Jews. They ate the animals that were brought to God as gifts in worship and put on the altar. Did this not show they were sharing with God? 19 What do I mean? Am I saying that a false god or the food brought to it in worship is worth anything? 20 No, not at all! I am saying that the people who do not know God bring gifts of animals in worship. But they have given them to demons, not to God. You do not want to have any share with demons. 21 You cannot drink from the cup of the Lord and from the cup of demons. You cannot eat at the Lord’s table and at the demon’s table. 22 Are we trying to make the Lord jealous? Do we think we are stronger than the Lord?”
What Paul is saying here is this; we cannot celebrate the Lord’s Table and also celebrate the world around us.
Joshua challenged the people of his day, “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” Joshua 24:15.
Who am I really going to worship?
When I come to the Lord’s Table, my commitment is to worship God and to celebrate the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
If I am simply going through the motions, I am at odds with God.
1 Corinthians 10:21
“21 You cannot drink from the cup of the Lord and from the cup of demons. You cannot eat at the Lord’s table and at the demon’s table.”
Conclusion…
Nothing is more important to me than celebrating the Lord’s Table. It is not how often I celebrate it, or how I celebrate it, but that I celebrate it in a way that honors and glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ and also brings me together with the fellowship of God’s people.
In gathering around the Lord’s Table we lay aside all of our differences because they really don’t matter, and we focus on the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. To do anything otherwise is to dishonor the fellowship and when I dishonor the fellowship, I am dishonoring God.
