Tonight, I invite you to turn in the Bibles to, your Bibles to 1 Corinthians, the book of 1 Corinthians, chapter 11, 1 Corinthians, chapter 11, and if you're looking for that and need that page number in your pew Bibles, that is found on page 1218. After the section last time on head coverings, now we transition to a section on the Lord's supper and so we're picking up at verse 17 tonight and we'll read through verse 26 this is the word of the lord but in the following instructions i do not commend you because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse for in the first place when you come together as a church i hear that there are divisions among you and i believe it in part for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized when you come together it is not the lord's supper that you eat or in eating each one goes ahead with his own meal one goes hungry another gets drunk what do you not have houses to eat and drink in or do you despise the church of god and humiliate those who have nothing what shall i say to you shall i commend you in this? No, I will not. For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when 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. In the same way, also he took the cup after the supper, saying, the cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the lord's death until he comes may the lord bless the hearing of his word i am used to trying to make a case to christians about the lord's presence and um about his presence in the supper and the wonderful spiritual blessing for us in the supper that we have uh i think of the words that come out of the belgic where it says we don't go wrong when we say what is eaten is christ's own natural body and what is drunk is his own blood but the manner in which we eat is not by the mouth but by the spirit through faith this banquet says the belgic is a spiritual table at which christ communicates himself to us with all of his benefits at that table he makes us enjoy himself as much as the merits of his suffering and death as he nourishes strengthens and comforts our poor, desolate souls by the eating of His flesh and relieves and renews them by the drinking of His blood. That's a hard concept for us to get. It's challenging. That there's real nourishment. There's real strengthening. There's real benefits. There's real blessing. And we understand that God is really lavishing down upon us something beautiful and something strengthening in our union with christ when we understand this when we think about this i don't i don't see how anyone could say it could become meaningless i just it's never worked for me but i've never had anyone say to me and try to tell me that christ can be absent from the supper what if my sermon title tonight was the absence of christ from the supper what would you think wanting nothing to do with it did something stand out to you as i read tonight in that text there's something that really stood out to me as i read this and i don't know if i've just never caught it or paid attention that seems to be happening more as i'm getting older i don't know but i noticed this in verse 20 when you come together in one place it is not to eat the lord's supper whoa think about that they've come together to celebrate the lord's supper and he just said you're not eating the lord's supper he has nothing to do with that doesn't look like his supper there's nothing about it that is his supper you should stop thinking that it's his supper so you draw the conclusion and you start asking the question well what were they doing what what was going on in corinth and i don't know if you felt the apostle as i was reading that tonight he's not happy again i'm not commending you guys he says you think i should commend you for this i'm not commending you for this earlier he had said should i come to you with a rod what was going on in corinth and i i stop and i say what a church isn't it what a church if i'm summarizing all the problems that took place in this church and we've been through a pile of them by now we're running up what are we getting uh if you were to sum up what what is this this theme what are you seeing woven through all of this tonight in our study and in the last months in our study of the book of corinthians that continues to show itself that continues to repeat it's this there's no separation from the world that i that's that's what i get and that means that when that's the case idolatry is rampant in that place idolatry is common in a church. And Paul had been saying this. Paul had been saying, listen, you need to stay away from idolatry. It's much more dangerous than you realize. Well, I want to press a little further what was going on in Corinth. And I saw this last week and I see it again this week. It's that all distinctions were being lost. I thought to myself last week, the devil is so crafty. He loves to blur lines and distinctions in those things that god has made there are absolutes we live in a culture that hates absolutes there are absolutes there are creation norms and he loves to to tear that up and blur it all up and mingle it all up so that we no longer care anymore and just accept it and tolerate it but then which is another strange twist in this if you look carefully tonight he loves to reap division in those areas that god is unified what a dog and i've come to the conclusion that the problem that the book of corinthians is showing us is that the essence of idolatry for christians as we've been looking at this is our acceptance of blurred lines and justifying that in the name of Christian worship, our acceptance of blurring of lines and tolerating of practices that the Lord has said you cannot do as Christians and justifying that in the name of worship. That's what you saw with the golden calf. Remember what I've consistently said about the golden calf. It wasn't that they were rejecting the worship of God. They were trying to bring into that worship a calf a molded image a golden calf saying this is your god who brought you out of the land of egypt again blurring it all up mingling it all up and boundaries are lost boundaries are pushed in this environment and distinctions you noticed last time cultural distinctions cultural things that were going on boundaries being pushed were assaulting creation norms and creation distinctions between men and women. I don't know if you paused this last week and just took a look around. It's happening everywhere. We were sitting at the dentist's office and there was an Armani ad and there were two people and I could not tell the difference. I'm serious. Between the man and the woman, they looked exactly the same. I was just taking this last week that it's not even distinctions being blurred there there's complete reversal now you saw the news that bruce jenner was now becoming a woman this is your society this is what's going on it's looking a lot like the first century and i think it's going to get worse well now paul transitions with that challenge last time paul transitions and tonight says this same problem has shown itself with the lord's supper in there what should be a great distinction between all these pagan feasts there's none looks just like them between what the lord himself had ordained had ordained on one hand and what corinth corinth was doing in the church i mean it was they had jumped into or brought into the church all of the pagan practices as we've been considering these feasts that you had to be involved in as a member of society so the goal tonight of paul in this particular problem and in this particular case is to correct what is a serious abuse in the life of the church next time we'll consider the warning passage that's given about it and he's calling the corinthians to repentance through this showing them that the lines had been so blurred in their what should be distinctive practice of the supper it now they has he has to correct this and convict them as to what needs to be the most separate practice they do from what they're doing in the world and so in in um in verse 17 paul transitions to this um the issue has to do with you'll notice there the lord's table verse 17 but in the following instructions i do not commend you because when you come together it's not for the better but for the worse you imagine if i stood up and said that tonight to all of you you guys come together and it's for the worse what an awful thing to hear huh it's for the worse why verse 18 for in the first place when you come together as a church i hear that there are divisions among you and i believe it in part i heard i heard this from probably close household and and just a side point when things are brought to us we're all so quiet today truth when something is brought to us it needs to be when something that is terrible going on in someone's life and you hear that we need to talk about that paul is not bashful to say this is what i've heard this is what and he even says and i believe it so this is an important principle here of being a shepherd and notice here i believe it for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized what in the world was going on well some of this has been introduced to us back in chapter 8 which really did launch a whole section into this explaining this uh in chapter 8 he was dealing with participation in these pagan feasts they were justifying it they had dinners at trade guilds um and this was the way we've said you came into contact uh with business dealings and did business in society well the problem in corinth was was pretty clear corinth was a well-to-do society corinth um was built upon social class distinctions. Distinctions were big like that. In other words, those with the money received the best seats. Depending upon where you were on the ladder socially, you would walk in and they would receive the best wine. They would receive the best meats. They would receive the best foods. Think about it. Who would have been last in these feasts or who never even made it into those feasts well it was the poor when the meat was made in the meat in in these feasts the meat that wasn't eaten by the rich was then thrown out to the poor out on the streets to get it for cheap you had racial distinctions you had all sorts of problems you think the jews and the greeks ate together nobody ate with the romans i'm told this is how we're programmed so what was going on in corinth well here's their celebration of the lord's supper it looks no different it was so bad verse 17 says when they come together it's getting worse i believe it he says there are divisions among you oh we've been dealing with that for a while now in corinthians we've been dealing with that since chapter one they had their own favorite favorite super pastors everyone was aligning around their favorite super pastor and it was dividing the church there but now this division happened when they came together as a church notice what it says here and by the way that assumes that the church came together locally and that it's expected by the way i mean they were doing this this was the pattern now paul says something interesting in verse 9 for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine may be recognized that could be paul saying factions are needed to prove who's real i don't know if that fits the context i believe he's being sarcastic it sure seems like these factions need to happen so that you can recognize those who are approved among you those who have the status sure seems like these things just keep having to happen in corn in other words that's why i think these happening because there are a bunch of prima donnas in corinth who lust after position and name and they need these divisions to make that known that could be it whatever the case do you see what's happened if the supper looks like these pagan feasts verse 21 makes every sense in the world for an eating one each one goes ahead with his own meal one goes hungry and another gets drunk by the way that proves they were using wine in the supper not grape juice when you guys eat this the best seats are given for the social elite the best wine goes to them and why because you're dumping it on them and they get drunk and that poor guy over there doesn't get any can you imagine that in the supper you really do get kind of an insight into how the supper was observed in the first century don't you they would gather for worship and then they would have the supper and it was a kind of full-on meal we know christians were mocked for this if you were to open up the book of jude they were mocked for what were called love feasts that's what the love feasts were called and this kind of problem developed in corinth so paul at this point asked a series of questions to have them consider the consequences of what they're doing he says in verse 22 or do you despise the church of god and shame those who have nothing what shall i say to you shall i praise you in this do you think i'm going to come and praise you and what you're doing i don't praise you i think it's a tragic thing that's said here that paul has to raise do you despise god's church do you despise god's church what is the church it's the body of christ purchased by his blood you know there is a distinction that satan wants to work hard to maintain there's one he loves to blur right and wrong in other words this is what the prophets cried out about that when societies go awry when societies run the cycle of iniquity what you start happening is they call good evil and evil good it's all blurred and mingled up but do you want to know how crafty he is there's one distinction he wants to keep he wants to rip apart the body of christ with a certain kind of division what has the gospel done what has the gospel done i love to think about this tonight the gospel has done something so beautiful the gospel has tore down every kind of distinction of what i just talked about in the sense of salvation between male and female jew and greek slave and free black and white i could go throughout mexican dutch i could just keep going it has absolutely torn all of that down and it's made us all members of one another that's the church that's the body what do you see happening in our society you see divisions on these lines everywhere those with money those with status well you know they get the voice We generally know who they are. They're respected. The poor aren't really respected. Look at the racial divides. You'll never get over it in this country. You just won't. I mean, for a long time in this country, sure, there were different drinking fountains in the South. Some that said white, some that said black. For a while, people sat in the front of the bus and people sat in the back. But have you really seen that healed in our country? You haven't seen that heel. You have not seen that heel. And I want you to notice here where the devil is working. How are we viewed? Is there social elitism? Who do we fellowship with? The early church really struggled with this. And we continue today to struggle with this, but it's the place where all of that has been unified remember james warned that if a man comes in wearing gold rings and fine clothes into your assembly and a poor man in shabby clothing comes in and you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say you sit here in a good place while you say to the poor man you stand over there or sit down at my feet have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts listen my beloved brothers has not god chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs in the kingdom which he has promised to those who love him but you have dishonored the poor man these distinctions gospel tears down it's no longer about ultimately about even family being first oh jesus dealt with that all the time he kept having to deal with that remember while he was still speaking uh he was still speaking to the people behold his mother and his brother stood outside asking him to speak but he replied to the man who told him who is my mother and who are my brothers and stretching out his hand towards disciples he said here are my mothers and my brothers that's just beautiful for whoever does the will of my father in heaven is my brother and my sister and my mother now gospels united us everything in corinth is backwards they are blurring what god has made distinct and now they're ripping apart what god is unified you see it oh that's the devil sometimes when people leave the church you get the standard excuses well the church is not friendly or i don't like the people or no one's nice to me or i always want to say we never get the choice to choose who god puts next to us in the pew. You ever think about that? You don't get that choice. And the supper is the place where the unity of Christ's body, because of his work, demonstrates what that work has accomplished. When we come together and we do this together, we're doing it in harmony and in love and in peace with God and peace with man. Satan wants to blur. Satan wants to mingle up that and divide that up. Now here's the challenge tonight. I thought to myself as I was preaching this, the Escondido URC, no one's going to get drunk on two ounces. It's just not going to happen. So what does this even look like for us? How does first century with that problem translate to us Escondido URC? What would this look like for us? Well, how about this? So if you're offering your gift at the altar and there remember your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, then come offer your gift. A basic application when there's fighting among us, when people refuse to love one another, not only are we to love our enemies, but especially our brethren. When we don't even love our brethren, when we don't even love our family or have fellowship with them, how are we not doing this tonight? That very thing. It's possible that we never talk to some of our brethren here. And maybe that's just in general because paths don't cross. But it could be because I want to have nothing to do with certain people. And then we're assaulting the very thing that the Lord's Supper is designed to tell us about in what Christ accomplished on the cross. I'm going to give us one other way tonight where I think the first century context and we can think a little bit about how we can do this so easily. Did you notice how foreign this practice of the Lord's Supper felt when I described it tonight? When I say you get insight into the first century and how it was observed, they would gather for worship and they would have supper and there would be a big kind of meal. Sunday was an entire day together. It really was. I don't think any of you could dream of getting drunk in the supper. Well, that would be more like maybe the churches who just throw it open for anyone and they have no bounds of anything. What does our practice look like? What does our practice look like? Well, we take a few ounces of wine. We have a little bite-sized mini piece of bread. It's all nice and tidy. It's delivered to us. In fact, to keep things very guarded, and I'm for that by the way. We interject a long form and we read a long form to make sure everyone gets it. That's our customary way of celebrating the supper. Nothing necessarily wrong with that. But sometimes I wonder if we transition well into it. What do I mean? You hear the gospel. You're ready to eat and drink and then we have people check out emotionally and mentally because of practice. Here's the danger. We can begin to so hedge the supper with added things we never really enjoy it ourselves for what it is. I mean, think about it. I think sometimes the supper for us is just about how bad I feel about myself beforehand to be worthy enough to do it. And all our form reading that we've done for all these years hasn't really seen, at least in my time in ministry, to produce a real understanding. How could that be? How could that be? You could read that form over and over and over and over and over and still not understand. I think in many respects we're afraid of the Supper. We've locked it down because of all those abuses on the other end. We have locked this down. We're afraid. What I'm saying is there are dangers on both extremes. You could so casually do it and throw it to everyone and it doesn't matter. And then you have these kind of problems that were dealt with in Corinth and God's very offended. But then you have the problem on the other end of people drawing near to God with their mouths, but their hearts are far from Him, only mad if the form's not read. And then we could never really enjoy the supper in freedom and in communion and it joyfully uniting and having a real blessing among us, a fellowship. I do get concerned about that. this has to be something beautiful and something helpful to our Christianity and spiritually beneficial to our souls. And with that in mind, Paul then... Now, here's what I want to do just for a minute before we close. Paul now begins to correct it and reform their practice. How were they to repent? And what were they to understand about the supper? Look at verse 23. For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night in which 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. In the same way also he took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Do you wish I slowed down? Can I ask you not to hear that in form mode? Can I ask you to listen to the words? In other words, imagine if you heard that for the first time. Think about it. What's he saying? The Lord instructed us about this, brothers and sisters. Do you remember the night in which he was betrayed? Oh, wow, the weight of that. Judas, Judas, in the midst of the most distressing moment to his soul, when he was becoming the sin offering, a Belgic tonight, when the Lamb of God was becoming the propitiation for our sins, that night, in the midst of his betrayal, do you know what he did for you? He grabbed bread and he transformed the Passover. And he made it the Lord's Supper. And he gave thanks. And in front of everyone, he broke it. Remember what he said? This is my body given for you. And he said the same thing with the cup. This is the new covenant in my blood. My body was broken. My blood was shed. And I'm giving you something really special. It's for you. So that you would know, remember what the disciples all asked in the middle of that betrayal? One of you is going to betray me tonight. Lord, is it I? Is it I, Lord? You all struggle with that. You all struggle if you're going to be there. You all struggle at the end of the day whether you're really going to be there. And he says, this is for you. Paul wants us to think about this. Everything that was promised to Abraham in the offering up of the body and blood of Christ. And Paul says there's a few things that are happening. God is strengthening you. God is helping you in all your distresses. God is feeding your souls with life. God is lifting you out of the pit. And you are, you are doing something. It's a great moment of remembering all that I did for you. Don't ever, don't ever look down on remembering. Remembering is a wonderful thing that the Psalms constantly tell us to do. Remember when you were in your greatest distresses, when you were failing, God always told His sheep, remember I've never left my saints alone. I've never let them fall. See how sad it was that these poor people were being shoved out of the supper? and that some people were getting the best seats and all this. It was about the unity. We all together get Christ. And then Paul says, guess what? You get to do a witness. You all wonder, what am I doing to witness? There's a great witness that happens every time you take the supper. You are proclaiming something. You are doing real proclaiming. What is happening? You're proclaiming the Lord's death until He comes. It's a serious thing, but it's a seriously exciting thing, a seriously exciting and joyful thing, okay? We get to declare visibly that Jesus has died for us. And God gives us assurance as we come in faith and strengthens us. And the Lord's saying, I know you need that and I'll do that for you. And yet we're dealing with hedges on this side and hedges on this side and do we ever get to it? The devil wants to muddy that all up. The devil wants to muddy that. To blur all the lines in the world, to hedge it in so that it can't be enjoyed. He wants to hedge it in so that it can't be enjoyed. But where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty to worship and enjoy God as He commands. I hope we take more seriously the meaning of the supper and what we're doing. Coming together to eat His body and drink His blood spiritually. When you honor Him in that way and you reverence Him in that way, just like this morning, in faith and repentance, He delights more and more to commune with us. When this morning, my presence will go with you, don't you think it's special that before Jesus left, lo, I will be with you to the close of the age. I'm with you. Don't push Him out. That's why I said it's a terrible thing that He could say to this church, it's not the Lord's Supper you're celebrating. Don't loosen it up so much and don't hedge it in so much. Come to Him in faith. Reverence Him according to His Word. Glorify Him and realize you are called to be separate from the world. Set apart to proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness and brought you into light. A light now that you can stand before because of the precious blood of Jesus Christ. In His name, let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank You for giving us Your Word tonight. And often what You have given us, When we look at these sacraments and we look at the history of the church, given us to be such a blessing, we've seen the church muddy these things up. It's not even been joyful for many people. And You intended it to be a spiritual benefit and blessing for us. And so let us have a renewed appreciation of the supper, but also let us be separate from all that is profane because You are holy and separate. And may we then come with sincere hearts and true faith, loving You, drawing near with the mouth and with the heart, glorifying You. And as we go out into another week, recognizing that we are separate from this world. Thank You for instructing us in Your Word and Gospel this day. We receive all these blessings with thanksgiving. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.