WWUTT 1576 The Lord‘s Supper In an Unworthy Manner (1 Corinthians 11:27)

There is a right way that we are to handle the elements at the Lord's table.

The bread, which represents the body of Christ. The cup, which represents His blood. And this is an essential mark of Christ's church when we understand the text.

Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is committed to teaching sound doctrine and rebuking those who contradict it.

Visit our website at www .utt .com. Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Thank you Becky. First Corinthians 11 is where we are as the Apostle Paul is instructing, even rebuking, the

Corinthians on their use, or misuse, of the Lord's table. I'm going to start reading again in verse 17 and we'll go through verse 34 out of the

Legacy Standard Bible. The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth. But in giving this instruction,

I do not praise you, because you come together not for the better, but for the worse. For in the first place, when you come together as a church,

I hear that divisions exist among you, and in part I believe it. For there must also be factions among you, so that those who are approved may become evident among you.

Therefore, when you meet together in the same place, it is not to eat the Lord's supper. For in your eating each one takes his own supper first, and one is hungry and another is drunk.

For do you not have houses in which to eat and drink? 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 I will not praise you.

For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the

Lord Jesus, in the night in which he was being 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 he took the cup, also 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 the cup, you proclaim the death of the

Lord until he comes. Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the

Lord in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the

Lord. But a man must test himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly.

For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep.

But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the

Lord, so that we will not be condemned along with the world. So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another.

If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, so that you will not come together for judgment.

The remaining matters I will direct when I come. So where we finished last week was in the instructions on how the

Lord's Table is to be partaken of properly. How we come to the

Lord's Table. The elements that the Lord's Table should include, and it's very simply the bread and the cup.

That's what it is that Jesus shared with his disciples. That's what we are to do in remembrance of what

Christ has done for us. And because he humbled himself, we must humble ourselves when we come to that table.

We are equals at the Lord's Table. There is no one greater. There is no one less than.

And what was going on in the church in Corinth is that they were having these big agape feasts, these love feasts.

Those who were rich were bringing a lot of food and feeding themselves, and those who did not have much didn't bring anything, and they were leaving hungry.

And Paul says that this was happening before they then took the elements of what would consist of the

Lord's Table, for he says that in verse 21, in your eating, each one takes his own supper first, and one is hungry and another is drunk.

So they have the agape feast first, and then there would be the passing out of the elements as the

Lord gave to his disciples. So maybe they were doing it like they thought it was a Passover meal.

Not really Passover, but you get what I'm saying. Because Jesus and his disciples, they ate their big dinner first, and then

Jesus handed the bread and said, this is my body, and passed the cup and said, this is my blood.

So maybe the Corinthians had it in their minds, hey, we're just enjoying the dinner like Jesus and his disciples did.

But none of that was being shared. The rich were coming with their big smorgasbord, and they were filling themselves up on what they brought.

And then the poor aren't bringing anything. So you have class separation that's going on there.

You have the rich that are seen as greater and more important because they're filling themselves up with more food and the poor don't get anything and they kind of get pushed off to the side.

This completely defeats the purpose of the Lord's table where everyone is welcome to come and everyone comes before God as a needy sinner.

We are poor in spirit. Remember the beatitudes, blessed are the poor in spirit was the very first beatitude that Jesus mentioned there in Matthew chapter five at the start of the

Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. It means that we come to the

Lord as needy beggars. We know that no matter how much we have, no matter the prestige that we've received here on this earth, we still have nothing if we do not have

Christ. And so this Lord's table is to be a place where we all come needing the same thing.

None of us has more. None of us has less. We all need Christ. And so we come together humble, waiting on one another.

The instruction that Paul gives to the Corinthians here, not putting your needs ahead of anybody else, but as he said to the

Philippians in Philippians chapter two, you put others needs ahead of your own. So they come to the

Lord's table. They, they do not come with the right frame of mind with the right kind of heart.

And so another goes hungry and another is drunk. One goes without anything and the other has filled himself up on wine.

Do you not have houses in which to eat and drink? Paul says, do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing?

What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? Very sarcastic, rhetorical question. No, I'm not going to praise you in this.

And then Paul gives to them exactly what the Lord gave to him. So this is not something that he's telling the church to do because here's my idea of the

Lord's supper. And so you need to do this. This is what the Lord says that in the night in which he was being betrayed, he 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. He took the cup also after supper saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. That's exactly the way we see it in the gospels.

But of course, Paul was not with the other disciples in the upper room when that supper was being given by the

Lord. And so this was given by the Lord to Paul later, but it did not come from his own idea.

It's not even something that he's relaying to the church in Corinth that came from the other apostles, although that would have been enough.

But Paul, as an apostle himself, received this from the Lord. A number of years ago, a friend of mine was posting on Facebook about preparing for the

Lord's table. He was going to have communion. He was leading his church in the Lord's supper that coming

Sunday. So he was talking about some different thoughts, different ideas, things that he had been studying in the Bible, just preparing his mind and heart for this.

And then on Sunday, well, yeah, I think it was Sunday afternoon. It might have been Monday morning. But anyway, he posted something on Facebook that he said.

So after the things that I shared on Facebook last week, there was a woman in my community that read it.

And she said she started praying and meditating on what I was sharing about the

Lord's table. And she said that on Saturday night, the Lord came to her in a dream, in a vision, and said, here is how

I want you to pass on to this pastor how the Lord's table is supposed to be done.

And there was a certain phrase. He said exactly what it was, but I don't remember it anymore. There was a phrase that that she said

Jesus gave her. And in order to do the Lord's supper rightly, you have to say this phrase. You must say this as you're handing out the elements.

Now, based on what he shared, there wasn't anything else about the Lord's table that looked off, except that she said that the

Lord specifically said to her, this is the phrase that the pastor is supposed to say when he does the

Lord's table. So apparently how all of this was unfolding is he's sharing some thoughts about what he was studying about the

Lord's table, preparing his heart to prepare his people for worship. That coming Sunday, this lady read it and she started meditating on the

Lord's table and then came up with this vision or this idea on some sort of phrase that she thought the pastor should say with the

Lord's supper. And apparently she said to him, if you don't say this, if you don't do it like this, like the vision that I had, then you'll be in disobedience because this comes from the

Lord. So she gets there that Sunday morning and tells the pastor, here's what the Lord told me to tell you.

And he said to her, I'm going to go with what the Bible says, like I'm going to I'm going to lead the

Lord's supper with my congregation exactly as Paul lays it out in first Corinthians chapter 11, because that's what we've been given.

That's the instruction that is for the church. That's the way that I'm going to do it. This other thing that you said here, this phrase that you claim the

Lord gave you, I don't see that in first Corinthians 11. So I'm not going to go with that. I'm going to go with what the

Lord says. And she was adamant. She was insistent. You have to do it this way or you bring yourself into condemnation and everybody else in the church that is under you.

And he asked that she leave if that was going to be her attitude, that clearly she could not come to the

Lord's table and be unified with the rest of this body because she had an idea about the Lord's table that was not given in scripture.

And I congratulated my my friend on that, my fellow pastor for sticking to the word and not following the even even visions and ideas in his own mind.

But he was going with what the Lord had said, according to his word. So Paul here is saying something that doesn't come from his own mind.

It comes from the Lord and he is an apostle. So what he says indeed comes from Christ.

I receive from the Lord that which I also delivered to you. Here's what the Lord's table is supposed to be.

You're making this into something that God never intended. Here's what it is supposed to be for his people.

And verse 26, as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the

Lord until he comes and not just his death, but everything that is is wrapped up in his death.

Right. Not just the fact that Jesus died on a cross, but that he died on the cross as a substitutionary sacrifice, as an atoning sacrifice for our sins so that whoever believes in him will not perish, but will have everlasting life.

Our sins are forgiven by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We testify to that when we partake of the

Lord's table, not just that Jesus had this supper with his disciples, not just that he died.

Even his resurrection is proclaimed in the elements of the Lord's table, because remember that when he passed the cup with his disciples, he said to them,

I will not eat or I'm sorry, I will not drink of the fruit of this vine with you until I drink it with you anew in my father's kingdom.

So there's the declaration of his resurrection, of living in the eternal kingdom of God, which we are promised for those who have faith in Christ.

All of this is wrapped up in what we share in the Lord's table, not in the agape feast, not in the rich coming with a bunch of food, not in getting drunk, not with the poor leaving hungry.

What we have in the Lord's table is the bread that has been broken for us, representing his body that has been broken and the blood that has been spilled for the forgiveness of sins, the blood of the new covenant.

And notice here that Paul says in verse 24, Jesus words, this is my body, which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me. Verse 25, this cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this as often as you drink it. In remembrance of me, that word in remembrance is literally memorial.

Do this as a memorial, remembering what Christ has done for us so that in and of itself should immediately say to us, this is not the literal, actual flesh of Jesus Christ and his literal, actual blood the way that the

Roman Catholics want to proclaim it or even the Greek Orthodox. Now, the Greek Orthodox will say that it's his glorified body and his glorified blood.

Nonetheless, they're still proclaiming that it becomes a different substance than bread and wine or juice or whatever else is in the cup.

That's not how Jesus presented it to his disciples. He took actual bread and broke it and gave it to them.

He took the same cup that they had been drinking with supper that's stated in in the narrative accounts of the

Lord's table. This is a memorial. It's not literally Jesus body and literally his blood.

We eat these things in remembrance of the actual body that was broken for us, of his actual blood that was spilled on the cross for our sins and all the blessings and benefits that we receive as being children of God, access to the

Lord, fellowship with him, the promise of reigning with him in his eternal kingdom.

All of this is given to us by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the elements themselves are a memorial in remembrance of him.

The the eating and the drinking are done as a memorial. That doesn't mean, though, that Jesus is not present at this table just because the bread doesn't become his literal body and the cup doesn't become his literal blood doesn't mean that Jesus is not with us.

He is with us there. For, as Jesus stated in Matthew 18, 20, where two or three have gathered together in my name,

I am there in the midst of them. And so as we gather together as the body of Christ at the

Lord's table, as brothers and sisters in the Lord, where two or three gather in his name, he is there with us.

Jesus is indeed with us, with his children, with his followers. When we come together at the

Lord's table. Now, somebody might say to me, well, hang on there, Pastor Gabe. I agree with you on that.

I agree that the Lord is with us when we gather together to eat and to drink at the Lord's table.

But I happen to know that passage there in Matthew chapter 18, because you've said this and I know this because I've read it before.

Matthew chapter 18 is in regards to church discipline, where Jesus says where two or three are gathered in my name, there

I am in their midst. That's in the context of church discipline. It's not in the context of the Lord's table. So while it may be true that Jesus is with us, you're misusing that verse.

Are you sure about that? Because Paul actually puts these instructions regarding the

Lord's table in the context of church discipline, look now at verse 27.

Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the

Lord. Proper practice of the Lord's table requires church discipline, that we are a church that admonishes and encourages one another and corrects each other and disciplines one another.

For it is only in a church where discipline is practiced that you can be sure the

Lord is with that body at the Lord's table when they gather. There are two essential marks that every church needs.

Now you've heard it said there are nine marks to a healthy church, right? That's the popular book that was penned by Mark Dever.

I believe that I can narrow it down to two. There are two essential marks that every church needs.

Number one, every church must have expository preaching. There must be the sound teaching of the word of God, teaching it in context.

And expository preaching, by the way, doesn't mean that you go verse by verse through books of the

Bible. There are churches I know that do that and they don't do it right. They still get the text wrong.

So verse by verse, reading through the Bible doesn't inherently mean that somebody is doing expository preaching, but it's understanding what was said by the original author to the original audience, seeing those things in context and then giving and then tying what is read to the cross of Christ as it all points to Jesus and then giving modern application how it then applies to us in our present.

But you must you must do that in the right way, handling the text in the right way, which is the instruction that Paul gave to Timothy when he says that a good servant of the

Lord rightly handles the word of truth. An approved workman, right, rightly handles the word of God.

So the first mark of a healthy church is going to be expository preaching, that the word of God is over that church and that body is in submission to what

God has said in his word, the Bible. That's number one. Number two, second element, second mark is the right practice of the ordinances and that being baptism and the

Lord's Supper. There's the two essential marks that every church needs, expository preaching.

And a right biblical handling of the ordinances, baptism and the

Lord's Supper, because if the Lord's Supper is even handled in the right way, church discipline will be part of that body's regular practice.

So you get church discipline in there with that as well. All of that falls under these these necessary marks of the church, the right teaching, right handling of the word of God and the right handling of the ordinances, baptism and the

Lord's Supper. And if the Lord's Supper is being practiced in a proper way, then you will find evidence of discipline being practiced in that church, according to the way the

Lord prescribes it in his word. See, it all comes back to the word of God, a church being in submission to the word of God, therefore, whoever eats of the bread and drinks of the cup of the

Lord in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But a man must test himself.

And in so doing, he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

Indeed, when we receive a person into membership in the body of Christ, they become a member and they get added to the membership roster of that particular church.

He's added because that church has tested that man or that woman and has said, yes, this person is a

Christian. They're part of the body of Christ. So therefore they can come to this table with us and partake rightly.

Of the bread and of the cup, and the instruction is that we would partake of the bread and of the cup, even though Paul is giving here a rebuke to the church in Corinth because they were mishandling the

Lord's table. None of this should be read as don't come to the Lord's table. Rather, we are instructed to come to the

Lord's table, we should delight to come and partake of the bread and of the cup, but doing so in a proper manner when a person has been tested, when they've been disciplined.

And may we all be humble before the Lord in this. We'll continue in these instructions in particular, the discipline that Paul is calling this church to a right handling of the

Lord's table when we come back to our study of first Corinthians 11 tomorrow. Heavenly father, we thank you for these instructions that have been given to us and may we handle these instructions rightly that we may handle the body and the blood rightly that we may encourage and admonish one another rightly.

We humble ourselves before God, submitting ourselves to your word that it not be our will and our desires in church or at your table or in your baptism or in the preaching of your word, it would be the will of God that presides over a body of Christ when we gather together.

Bless us and that we, that we may test our own minds and our hearts regarding these instructions as we continue this study.

It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. You've been listening to, when we understand the text with Gabriel Hughes, pastor

Gabe is the author of 25 Christmas myths and what the Bible says, examining some of our most common

Christmas beliefs and traditions and bringing them back to the truth of scripture. You can find this and other books at our website, www .utt