Unity and Reverence in the Lord's Supper
Devotional
Sermon Summary
Sermon Clips
"Morning church, pleasure to have each and every one of you with us this morning. Go ahead and turn your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 11 as we continue in our series that we've entitled Firing on All Cylinders. And we come in this time in our study of this book to a very famous passage of scripture. If you've been a part of really any church at any point in your life, no doubt you've heard this or at least parts of this passage recited, spoken about, devotionals being given for it because it centers around any time the church gathers together for the Lord's Supper or communion or in other more mainline churches, the time of the Eucharist. It's the time where the church gathers together and remembers the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And we come to this passage now in context. We come to it fully knowing that this passage that was written to declare to a church that was really, really struggling what it meant to do communion or the Lord's Supper right and properly." [00:00:00]
"And we've come to realize that just like everything else, when it came to communion, the church at Corinth wasn't firing on all cylinders. They weren't living out the calling that God had for them on their lives. In fact, starting in the beginning of chapter 11, Paul has been addressing questions about what orderly worship looks like, what it means for us to come together as the people of God, what our experience should be as we gather together, what should the attire be. And we talked about that last week with regards to head coverings and hair lengths and how those had become distractions because they had pursued pagan and cultural ideas and brought them into the church and how we don't want our worship to be distracting as well." [00:01:09] (52 seconds)
"It was a group endeavor. They were missing God's best when it came to this celebration of what the Lord has done for us. I want you to imagine for a moment that you open the mail and in the mailbox is an invitation. You open that invitation and there is this invite with beautiful calligraphy inviting you to an event, an occasion. And you know this event and occasion is different, first of all, because you received an invitation. These days we get emails, we get texts, we get a verbal invite to come and participate in the more mundane events of life. But this one is important because it has set a date and it has declared that they've put it way out there for you. They have communicated to you so that you can set the date, so that you can make your schedule ready and available. But even more than that, it communicates the idea of significance because of the lettering and the wording and the calligraphy that comes with it. We see these types of invitations for events like weddings, graduations. We're in the springtime and so our students will receive invitations like this for their prom. It signifies that the event you're going to participate in is an important one. It's a significant one and it's one that we should take a little differently than we do all other events. Often with invitations like this, you will see the type of attire you're supposed to wear. Black tie, formal, semi-formal, business casual, or wear something, right? So you get those types of responses there. And the reason why is the one who's inviting you, the host, wants you to be ready, wants you to be prepared, wants you to have the best experience you can when at the event that they've invited you to. It's important to them. It's a significant moment and event in their lives. And as you participate with them, they want to make sure that we're all on the same page. Well, what we have in 1 Corinthians 11 is an invite from Jesus Christ himself, inviting all people who love Jesus and have dedicated their lives to Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Thank you." [00:02:26] (143 seconds)
"He wants us to remember this because it was special to him, and he wants us to remember it because no doubt it is special to us. We who were sinners are no longer sinners, but we are now a part of the family of God. And what we are going to commemorate, as we do every first Sunday of the month, is the means and the mechanism by which Jesus made that in our lives a reality. And so you've been invited to the most special of events." [00:05:02] (30 seconds)
"But what we need to do is ask the question, we've been invited, do we have the proper table manners and etiquette that will allow us to enjoy and experience all that God wants us to as we celebrate it? To do so, we need to look at this text this morning, starting in verse 17. And instead of reading the entire passage all at once, what we'll do is we'll read, we'll stop, we'll make some comments, and then we'll bounce around a little bit. But we'll get to the totality of the passage in our time together. But there are three things that Paul wants us to know and remember regarding this. And that is, because the church at Corinth wasn't doing it well, he had to come and remind the people, the Christians at Corinth, number one, when it came to communion, he says, point number one, don't ruin it with bad etiquette. Don't ruin it with bad etiquette. Now notice how Paul starts the passage in 1 Corinthians 17. He says, but, 11, 17, he says, but in the following instructions, I do not commend you. Let's just pause there for a moment." [00:05:51] (71 seconds)
"In the following instructions, I do not commend you. If you go back to verse 2 of chapter 11, you will see that he commended them for other things. He says in verse 2, now I commend you. Because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions, even as I've delivered them to you. Now, 15 verses later, he says, regarding the Lord's Supper, there's nothing that I commend you about. There's nothing I can affirm. Which tells us the dire situation that the church of Corinth found themselves in because of their lackluster and even lewd approach to the Lord's Supper." [00:07:02] (42 seconds)
"And he says, Corinthians, you're gathering together and your time together is a deficit to you. It's a detriment to you. What you're doing and how you're approaching worship and how you're approaching your time together. There isn't value in it. So let me just pause and ask all of you this morning, as I did the first two services, is there value in what we're doing today? Is it making you a closer follower of Jesus Christ? Are you simply going through the motions?" [00:08:55] (32 seconds)
"What we're celebrating, what we commemorate when we get together, isn't something that we can simply go through the motions with. It has to do with our past. It has to do with our present. And yes, it has to do with our future. It is the very essence of why we live our lives." [00:09:28] (17 seconds)
"And this word schisms means that which is literally torn apart. It's a split, it's a division. So here the people of God have come together for a unified purpose, a unified meaning under one banner, the banner of Jesus Christ, and when you get there you tear each other apart. You separate, you separate men from women, you separate young from old, you separate rich from poor, you separate Jew from Gentile, and there are these factions, there are these cliques, there were these groups that were dividing themselves and so the church that was supposed to be one. It was many and that wasn't a good thing." [00:10:49] (43 seconds)
"Communion, the Lord's Supper, is a picture of what we should be experiencing all our life. And so we do this to recalibrate us, to redirect us to where our life should be. should be. Our life and our fellowship should be that of communion with God and one another, whether we've got bread or juice in our hands. Does that make sense? This points us back. This hearkens us back to remind us where we should be, and it puts to it tangible elements to it. Sadly, divisions and schisms, drunkenness and gluttony had carried the day." [00:21:24] (44 seconds)
"And so we pause and we say, okay, this is an important moment. And that's where Paul in verse 20 gives us our second point. He wants us to remember why this event is so special, why there are threats and warnings of God's judgment in approaching this in the wrong ways. He says, for I've received from the Lord. This isn't his own making. This isn't me saying, hey, this is important because I think it's important. Paul says, I've received from Jesus what I now deliver 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 for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And in the same way also he took the cup after supper saying, this cup." [00:27:44] (54 seconds)
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"And we've come to realize that just like everything else, when it came to communion, the church at Corinth wasn't firing on all cylinders. They weren't living out the calling that God had for them on their lives. In fact, starting in the beginning of chapter 11, Paul has been addressing questions about what orderly worship looks like, what it means for us to come together as the people of God, what our experience should be as we gather together, what should the attire be. And we talked about that last week with regards to head coverings and hair lengths and how those had become distractions because they had pursued pagan and cultural ideas and brought them into the church and how we don't want our worship to be distracting as well." [00:01:09] (52 seconds)
"It was a group endeavor. They were missing God's best when it came to this celebration of what the Lord has done for us. I want you to imagine for a moment that you open the mail and in the mailbox is an invitation. You open that invitation and there is this invite with beautiful calligraphy inviting you to an event, an occasion. And you know this event and occasion is different, first of all, because you received an invitation. These days we get emails, we get texts, we get a verbal invite to come and participate in the more mundane events of life. But this one is important because it has set a date and it has declared that they've put it way out there for you. They have communicated to you so that you can set the date, so that you can make your schedule ready and available. But even more than that, it communicates the idea of significance because of the lettering and the wording and the calligraphy that comes with it. We see these types of invitations for events like weddings, graduations. We're in the springtime and so our students will receive invitations like this for their prom. It signifies that the event you're going to participate in is an important one. It's a significant one and it's one that we should take a little differently than we do all other events. Often with invitations like this, you will see the type of attire you're supposed to wear. Black tie, formal, semi-formal, business casual, or wear something, right? So you get those types of responses there. And the reason why is the one who's inviting you, the host, wants you to be ready, wants you to be prepared, wants you to have the best experience you can when at the event that they've invited you to. It's important to them. It's a significant moment and event in their lives. And as you participate with them, they want to make sure that we're all on the same page. Well, what we have in 1 Corinthians 11 is an invite from Jesus Christ himself, inviting all people who love Jesus and have dedicated their lives to Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Thank you." [00:02:26] (143 seconds)
"He wants us to remember this because it was special to him, and he wants us to remember it because no doubt it is special to us. We who were sinners are no longer sinners, but we are now a part of the family of God. And what we are going to commemorate, as we do every first Sunday of the month, is the means and the mechanism by which Jesus made that in our lives a reality. And so you've been invited to the most special of events." [00:05:02] (30 seconds)
"But what we need to do is ask the question, we've been invited, do we have the proper table manners and etiquette that will allow us to enjoy and experience all that God wants us to as we celebrate it? To do so, we need to look at this text this morning, starting in verse 17. And instead of reading the entire passage all at once, what we'll do is we'll read, we'll stop, we'll make some comments, and then we'll bounce around a little bit. But we'll get to the totality of the passage in our time together. But there are three things that Paul wants us to know and remember regarding this. And that is, because the church at Corinth wasn't doing it well, he had to come and remind the people, the Christians at Corinth, number one, when it came to communion, he says, point number one, don't ruin it with bad etiquette. Don't ruin it with bad etiquette. Now notice how Paul starts the passage in 1 Corinthians 17. He says, but, 11, 17, he says, but in the following instructions, I do not commend you. Let's just pause there for a moment." [00:05:51] (71 seconds)
"In the following instructions, I do not commend you. If you go back to verse 2 of chapter 11, you will see that he commended them for other things. He says in verse 2, now I commend you. Because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions, even as I've delivered them to you. Now, 15 verses later, he says, regarding the Lord's Supper, there's nothing that I commend you about. There's nothing I can affirm. Which tells us the dire situation that the church of Corinth found themselves in because of their lackluster and even lewd approach to the Lord's Supper." [00:07:02] (42 seconds)
"And he says, Corinthians, you're gathering together and your time together is a deficit to you. It's a detriment to you. What you're doing and how you're approaching worship and how you're approaching your time together. There isn't value in it. So let me just pause and ask all of you this morning, as I did the first two services, is there value in what we're doing today? Is it making you a closer follower of Jesus Christ? Are you simply going through the motions?" [00:08:55] (32 seconds)
"What we're celebrating, what we commemorate when we get together, isn't something that we can simply go through the motions with. It has to do with our past. It has to do with our present. And yes, it has to do with our future. It is the very essence of why we live our lives." [00:09:28] (17 seconds)
"And this word schisms means that which is literally torn apart. It's a split, it's a division. So here the people of God have come together for a unified purpose, a unified meaning under one banner, the banner of Jesus Christ, and when you get there you tear each other apart. You separate, you separate men from women, you separate young from old, you separate rich from poor, you separate Jew from Gentile, and there are these factions, there are these cliques, there were these groups that were dividing themselves and so the church that was supposed to be one. It was many and that wasn't a good thing." [00:10:49] (43 seconds)
"Communion, the Lord's Supper, is a picture of what we should be experiencing all our life. And so we do this to recalibrate us, to redirect us to where our life should be. should be. Our life and our fellowship should be that of communion with God and one another, whether we've got bread or juice in our hands. Does that make sense? This points us back. This hearkens us back to remind us where we should be, and it puts to it tangible elements to it. Sadly, divisions and schisms, drunkenness and gluttony had carried the day." [00:21:24] (44 seconds)
"And so we pause and we say, okay, this is an important moment. And that's where Paul in verse 20 gives us our second point. He wants us to remember why this event is so special, why there are threats and warnings of God's judgment in approaching this in the wrong ways. He says, for I've received from the Lord. This isn't his own making. This isn't me saying, hey, this is important because I think it's important. Paul says, I've received from Jesus what I now deliver 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 for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And in the same way also he took the cup after supper saying, this cup." [00:27:44] (54 seconds)
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