Taking Part In The Lord's Table — Zac Poonen

Paul’s Revelation of the Lord’s Table

Let's turn to 1 corinthians in chapter 11. Let's read slowly verse 23. I received from the Lord that which I delivered to you that the Lord Jesus in the night which he was betrayed took bread. Now you know Paul who wrote this was not at the last supper when Jesus broke bread.

That's why he says I received this from the Lord. It's not just a report he got from others. He betrayed took bread and that's why he expands on it in a way in which none of the apostles have done because there was a spiritual revelation of the meaning of this given to Paul who was not there at the original last supper.

Remembering Christ’s Body and Presence

He broke it saying this is my body which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. That's the first thing that when we come together we come to remember Jesus Christ. That means we have to be conscious of his presence in our midst and like I often say Lord please give me this bread from your hand like you gave it to those disciples.

Give me the cup from your hand. I want to drink it straight from you and the same manner he took the cup also after supper. The cup is the new covenant in my blood. You know that in this church we emphasize new covenant a lot more than perhaps any other church and that's the one time the only time that Jesus spoke about the new covenant in his entire.

You read all his sermons and everything he spoke. He never spoke about the new covenant but when he took that cup which symbolized his blood, symbolized his death, he spoke about the new covenant. This is a new covenant in my blood and I would say put it like this in the old covenant it is the blood of bulls and goats which gave them an old attitude towards sin.

The New Covenant and Victory Over Sin

The new covenant is the blood of Jesus which gives a new attitude towards sin. So let's look at it as an old attitude to sin and a new attitude to sin. The old attitude to sin was oh well I know I'm going to keep doing this again and again again.

Every old testament person who brought a bull or a sheep to be killed, shed his blood, he'd go away from the altar and tell the priest hey I'm going to come back again because I'm never going to get victory over sin.

I'm just going to be defeated, defeated, defeated till my dying day. I'll keep coming and bringing the blood of bulls and goats. That is the old covenant. We must not come with that spirit to the new covenant.

Jesus said this cup is the new covenant in my blood but I don't drink like those people and say oh well I know I'm going to keep on sinning, sinning, sinning, sinning, sinning, sinning. No we come with the spirit which says I'm going to overcome one of these days.

I'm not going to keep on coming and sinning and sinning, sinning. This is a new covenant in my blood. Remember me. That means remember also why he hung on the cross. It was not to just to forgive our sin.

It says our old man was crucified with him that I might never be a slave to sin. One he died for our forgiveness of our sins. Second he crucified our old man so that we don't become slaves to sin and third he defeated satan on the cross so that we may never be afraid of him or enslaved to the devil in any way.

So remember those three things happen on the cross and most Christians think of only one of those things but we have to remember all three when we come to the Lord's table and as often as you eat this bread you proclaim the Lord's death these three things that happen there until he comes which means the bread is here and the death of Christ is there and his coming is here.

We look back to his death and we look forward to his coming. So there's a this is a transition stage where we say we know Jesus has come and we know he's coming again. So in the Lord's table there's also looking forward to the coming again where we'll finish with this breaking of bread over there.

We won't be doing it in eternity. So it's only for a short time and then it says here these are the words of warning. Whoever eats the bread and drinks the cup in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

Taking Communion in a Worthy Manner

Guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord means if I eat or drink this in an unworthy manner his question is not are you unworthy we are all unworthy. I'd be the first one to raise my hand and say I'm unworthy to be a child of God, sinner saved by grace.

We're all unworthy and that there's no doubt about it. In heaven they sing the lamb alone is worthy nobody else is worthy but here he's speaking about taking part of it in an unworthy manner. Not talking about whether you're unworthy or not but the way you're taking part in it is not in a worthy manner.

That means you're not in a proper way. You're not taking part in a proper way and isn't it interesting that verse 23 he received from the Lord. This is not what Jesus told his 12 disciples at the Lord's table that you know you can take part in an unworthy manner though it did happen in that first Lord's supper.

Judas, Peter, and Deliberate Sin

There was one man sitting at the table Judas Iscariot who took part in it. You know what all Judas Iscariot experienced there? Jesus washed his feet. Can you imagine? Peter said oh I won't let you touch me but Jesus said you have to.

I wondered what did Judas say when Jesus came to wash his feet? What was his reaction? He knows in a few minutes I'm going to betray this man but look at him washing my feet. Amazing that he was not convicted.

I would have thought if there's anything that convicted Judas Iscariot it would have been that action of Jesus' humility going around one disciple after another coming to him and I think he knew that Jesus knew that he was the crook because you know pretty soon he gave him the bread and said this is the one and told him okay what do you want to do go and do.

I think Judas sensed because earlier Jesus had once said one of you is a devil in John chapter 6 the last verse. So Judas knew that Jesus somehow knows what I am like but he didn't betray him. I mean Jesus did not reveal who Judas was to the others but he took part in an unworthy manner.

All the 12 were unworthy but one person took part in an unworthy manner. So we're all unworthy but it's possible to take part in an unworthy manner like Judas Iscariot that he is betraying the Lord. You know Peter denied the Lord but that was not unworthy it was a weakness he got scared.

He did not go to the courtyard of the high priest planning I'm gonna betray Jesus. No there's a difference he suddenly got scared when the people asked him he scared for his life and he said no no no I don't know him.

There's a difference between that type of you know suddenly you accidentally fall into sin whether it's anger or any such thing you didn't plan or scheme it but Judas Iscariot was different. He was planning and scheming I'm gonna do this.

Do it to someone who was the kindest person that he ever met. So when we treat the Lord like that, that's taking part in an unworthy manner. Not an accidental falling in a time of pressure like Peter but something deliberate something you know.

For example you may know something right now that you need to set right in your life and you have no intention to set it right. Not at all. Like Judas you know what is right but you have no intention to set it right.

You have no intention to ask that person's forgiveness. You have no intention to do the right thing but you take part. That's dangerous. That type of sin is different from you're really wanting to live a pure life and accidentally you slipped up or you in a moment of weakness you lusted after a girl or you lost your temper when immediately you repented.

That wasn't planned and schemed. It's a sin. You have to confess it. You have to forsake it. Ask the Lord to cleanse you but there's a difference between the sin of Peter and the sin of Judas Iscariot.

Peter did not take part in an unworthy manner. Judas did. So I hope you will take that to heart and the Lord revealed this to Paul that people can take part in an unworthy manner and if they do they are guilty it says in verse 27 of crucifying Christ.

The Body and Blood of the Lord

Guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. As guilty as those soldiers who hammered the nails and pierced his side with a spear. That's the meaning of guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. Peter was not guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

Judas Iscariot was. He was guilty of crucifying Christ even though he didn't take the hammer or the spear. So I don't have to take the hammer or spear and I can still be guilty of crucifying Christ if I take part in an unworthy manner just like Judas Iscariot.

We don't realize that when we are doing something which we know is directly contrary to what the Lord tells me in our conscience to do. It's not an accidental fall. An accidental fall the Lord ignores even if you do it three times like Peter.

But that which is deliberate and planned and schemed is in a different category altogether. You know it can even be in a husband and wife. Sometimes the husband and wife can in a moment of weakness just flare up and get angry and say something.

We must ask forgiveness. It's over. But it's very different when a husband or a wife schemes and plans and says I'm gonna teach my husband a lesson or I'm gonna teach my wife a lesson and you scheme and plan to go and say something to hurt.

That's in a completely different category from accidentally flaring up. Please remember that. Schemers and planners are in the camp of Judas Iscariot. People who accidentally fall are in the camp of Peter.

All unworthy but those who scheme and plan up and break bread do so in an unworthy manner. They are guilty of crucifying Christ again. And therefore since that warning is given it says in the book of Revelation that Jesus Christ himself, see that is why we don't come and take the plate away from you or take the cup away from you or tell you you shouldn't take it.

Because it does not say let the elder examine you. How in the world can the elder examine you, your private life? I mean I don't know anybody's private life. I hope you're comforted to know that. God doesn't show me anybody's private life.

I don't want to know it. God knows. If I knew your private life you may live a holy life to impress me. But God doesn't show me your private life so that you have to if you live a holy life just to impress God, not me.

Self-Examination Before Communion

Therefore it says let a man examine himself. You examine yourself. I examine myself. You must examine himself because it says before you eat the bread and drink the cup you must examine yourself. I don't know whether you do that every time.

Every single time you break bread. Actually a real sincere Christian will be judging himself every day. So he doesn't even need that exhortation because he's living in a self-judgment every day. But at least when we break bread let everyone examine himself.

Not your husband, not your wife, not a brother, not a sister, yourself. And then eat. It's a very clear command. You're not supposed to eat till you examine yourself. And that's the reason why we share the word before the Lord's table.

So it gives you an opportunity to remind you of these things because if you ignore that, well it doesn't matter. Then verse 29, you're eating and drinking judgment to yourself. That means God will judge you because you don't judge yourself.

Discerning the Body of Christ

God judges you because of another reason. Not just the body of Jesus Christ but this new body of Jesus Christ with whom you're sitting today. This is another body of Christ right here. Members of Christ's body and you are eating bread with the members of Christ's body saying, this is one bread, I'm part of this body.

Are you? Or are you betraying CFC like Judas betrayed Jesus Christ? He betrayed Jesus when he was on earth physically. Here it speaks of the danger of your betraying this spiritual body of Christ with whom you're breaking bread now.

That means you're not committed to the body but you're acting as if you are. You know 1 Corinthians 10, it says in verse 17, 10 -17, there's one bread and we who are many are one body because we all partake of that one bread.

So that is the body spoken of here. I'm partaking of that bread and saying, I'm part of this body. Are you? I'm not asking whether your name is on some telephone list but are you a part of the body? Do you feel yourself a part of this church?

You know how one member of this body says the other, I'm part of this body. The other left hand may be different from mine but I'm part of it. So the breaking of bread also speaks of a commitment and it says here if you read or drink lightly and say, oh well it doesn't matter if I committed to this body or not.

I'm a Christian, I don't care whether I'm committed to CFC or not. Then you're not judging this body properly. You don't understand what it means. What does it mean to judge the body rightly? That means you haven't understood that this is the body of Christ.

You can't judge the body of Christ as crucified on the cross. That's referred to in verse 27. In verse 29, he's referring to this body which you're not judging rightly as the body of Christ. You think it's just another group sitting here.

It's not another group. You haven't judged it as the body of Christ. You haven't judged it rightly. Then it is dangerous. For this reason, verse 30, not one or two, in the Corinthian church, many among you are weak and sick and a number are dead.

Sleep means dead. But if we judged ourselves rightly that would not have happened. I heard of a case of someone who was attending one of our CFC churches in another place, who was warned a few times about, are you committed yourself here before you break bread?

And he died prematurely. So one of the elders wrote and asked me, brother, do you think we should warn people about that example in that church? I said, no, please don't threaten people like that. Once a person is dead, God is his judge.

Self-Judgment and the Lord’s Discipline

Because the Bible says, it is appointed unto men once to die, after that the judgment. And that judgment is not from us, it's from God. So don't even mention it. But I said, you can mention what it says here in verse 30 about what happened in Corinth.

Forget about what happened in some CFC church, what happened in Corinth. Many were weak and sick and some died because they took the breaking of bread lightly. If that doesn't warn people, then I don't know what will warn people.

But if we judged ourselves rightly, we will never be judged. It's one of the great verses in verse 31 which says, if I live a life of self-judgment every day, one day when I stand before the Lord and he opens a scroll to judge me, he'll say, Zak, there's nothing.

I'm happy. Do you want the Lord to say that about you? Every one of us, I want it, desperately I want it. I want to be absolutely clear when I stand before the Lord that there's nothing. I've done so many wrong things in my life from my childhood, but there's nothing there to be judged.

Because if we judge ourselves rightly now, we will not be judged. It's a wonderful promise. I want to encourage all of you to take advantage of it. Now, there will be no judgment. If we judge ourselves rightly and the breaking of bread is one more occasion to remind us what we so quickly forget to judge ourselves every day.

But speaking again about these people who got weak and sick and died, when God judges you like that, that you become weak or sick, that is a discipline so that you don't get condemned to the world one day.

I mean, if you die, it's too late. But before that, it says here a weakness and a sickness can sometimes be a discipline from the Lord. Sure. I've seen that in my life at times when the Lord loved me so much that he gave me some weakness or sickness because I had to correct myself in some area.

And I said, thank you, Lord. I accept it like a spanking from a loving father. Hebrews chapter 12 says, if you don't get discipline, then you're not a real child. We don't discipline our neighbor's children, then you're not a real child of God, because it says which child is there whose father does not discipline.

So discipline from the Lord is one of the marks of being God's children. So when you say, how do you know you're a child of God? Well, I'm disciplined. That's how I know. I'm not the neighbor's child.

I'm my heavenly father's child. How do I know? Because he disciplines me. So he says, when we are disciplined, it is to save us from being condemned with the rest of the world. We discipline our children so that they don't get ruined like our neighbor's children.

God also does that. So let's keep these things in mind as we, there are comforting words when we come to the Lord, encouraging words, and also words of warning. Both are necessary for progress, you know, like the two wings of a bird, exhortation and encouragement.

With both of them, we fly towards the Lord. Okay, let's give thanks for the bread.