What Makes Us Worthy?

Normally when I minister the first question I ask is “How is the blessed of the Lord?” I’m not going to do that today. I am going to make a declaration. You are the blessed of the Lord. You are the son and the daughter of God Almighty. Everything in heaven is available to you. You are healed. Your needs are met completely. There are no question marks in your life when it comes to your Father’s view of you.

I grew up Baptist, Missionary Baptist. Whenever we would have communion that was going to be the longest service of the day, week, month, year! It was going to be long! (Laughter) As a child – 12, 13 – I was not looking forward to that service at all because I knew we would be there all day. Guess what? It’s not happening today! (Laughter)

When we would take communion, if you were not born again, if you had not accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you could not take communion. Many of the children would have to sit and watch as their parents took communion. We had communion on the first Sunday of the month. The pastor would pray and the deacons would get the crackers and break them up into smaller pieces. They would have their backs to you but you could hear the crunching sound.

The pastor would then ask us to stand up and he would read what we’re getting ready to read in First Corinthians 11. He would stop after reading a particular verse. After he would read that verse, 20 to 30 percent of the people would not take communion. We’re going to begin reading in verse 24 and then stop at that verse.

(24) And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.

(25) After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.

(26) For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come.

(27) Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

Every Sunday that we had communion, this word “unworthily” caused a lot of people not to take communion. But they didn’t take communion for the reason the word “unworthily” means. When our pastor would talk about it, he would talk about the sins we’d committed and if we had not gone to the Lord and repented, we could not take communion.

It was interesting to see the people who would not take communion. Now that I think about it, we even had deacons who didn’t take communion. What are you telling me? You are telling me that you have people who are serving in the position of deacon, a leadership position in the church, who have sin in their lives and they don’t take communion because they had not repented of the sin in their lives and yet they were up front crunching the crackers and pouring the “wine”.

So when I was growing up eating and drinking unworthily meant you had sin in your life that you had not confessed or repented of.

(28) But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.

(29) For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.

(30) For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.

Now go back to verse 24. Jesus says “Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.” The word “remembrance” means “memorial”. Jesus is saying “Whenever you eat the bread and drink the cup, I want you to think about what I have done for you.”

For example, 2 Corinthians 8:9 – “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.” What Jesus did for us was He gave us His riches and took our poverty. It was an exchange. Same thing when we read in First Peter “by his stripes we were healed.” He took the stripes for us so that our bodies could be healed.

I know that a lot of people use the word “substitution” for what Jesus did but “exchange” appeals to me. My wife loves crisp dollar bills, preferably in denominations $50 and higher. (Laughter) Whenever I get a crisp 5 dollar bill for example, I’ll take the money home and you should see the smile on my wife’s face. And I tell her she can have the money if she’ll replace it. So we exchange 5 dollar bills. She gives me her less than crispy 5 dollar bill for my crispy 5 dollar bill. In a way that’s what Jesus did for us. He took our “less than crispy” life and gave us His “crispy” life.