Self-Sacrifice And The Selfish - [1 Corinthians 11:17-34]

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How do you get people to change? How can you get people to change the way they think and to change the way they act?
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I guess you could probably say, self, get in line, sometimes I talk to myself, self stop doing that.
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You could probably go to therapy, maybe you could go to a group, a 12 -step group and sit with a bunch of other people who have your same problems and talk about it.
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Maybe somebody might give you medicine, maybe you put up a lot of post -it notes.
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How do you get people to change? I remember when I was growing up, I was in Mr.
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Sanfilippo's fifth grade class and I thought I of course was the teacher's pet. I think
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Melanie Corns was actually the teacher's pet, but in Mr. Sanfilippo's class, if you talked during school, you had to stay after school and write out perfectly the definition of the word quiet with all the colons and semi -colons and comments and it was a pretty large section.
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So one day I was talking up, hard to believe isn't it, and I got caught and I had to stay after school, but since I was almost the teacher's pet,
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I didn't have to write out quiet, he made me write out the definition of silence.
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It's a lot shorter, but I still learned my lesson. But you know, interestingly,
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Paul is dealing with people and instead of telling them to stop, instead of telling them to put a post -it note, instead of be discipled, all things that probably are good in their place,
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Paul says, let me show you who Christ Jesus is. If you've got a problem today as a
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Christian, Paul wants to show you who Christ is. Specifically, the
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Corinthians were selfish. How do you get people who are selfish to become selfless?
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How do you get people consumed by themselves, for themselves, always about themselves, to be people who give sacrificially?
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And so Paul says, I'll show you how, let me show you who Jesus Christ is. It's very counterintuitive.
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You say, I'd like to do this in my life a little bit better. Do you know what you need? You need the gospel again.
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That's why you need to be here tonight as well. How do I live the Christian life? By preaching the gospel to myself every single day.
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Selfish people need the selfless Messiah and a good long gaze upon him again.
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Let's turn our Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 11 as we go verse by verse through this great book.
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Take Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians, put them all together. Still not as big as 1 Corinthians. We're just marching through.
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We were slogging through years ago. Now we're marching through. I have a goal. I have not a deadline, but I see the end.
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How do you get a pastor to preach faster? You show him Christ Jesus. I can't believe
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Paul taught everything in the Old Testament to the church at Ephesus in three years. Reminds me of the pastor in New England 300 years ago when he was starting his ministry preaching through Isaiah chapter 1 verse 1 and when he died 40 years later he was in Isaiah chapter 8.
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So you think I'm slow? We all deal with selfishness.
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We all struggle with selfishness. You're selfish. I'm selfish. The Corinthians were selfish.
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We need help. And isn't it good of the Lord to tell us the right way to do it? You can put a post -it note down. You can talk to yourself.
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But what you really need is to see Christ again, the selfless one, the sacrificial one.
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You say, I'd like to be a less selfish husband. You need to see Christ again and what He did especially at Calvary.
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Oh, I'd like to be a less selfish wife. You need a good long look at Christ Jesus. We live in a selfish culture.
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I found a bunch of words in the dictionary that used to not be existent in the dictionary.
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Self -centered, self -seeking, self -love, self -importance, self -satisfaction, self -esteem, self -will, self -help, self -assured, self -portraits, self -realization, self -reliant, self -expression.
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And when you focus on self, it's nothing but self -what? Deception. We are told in the
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Bible to deny ourselves. Furthermore, we're told in the Bible to die to ourselves.
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But how do we do it? We're weak. We're fallible. We need help. Paul tells the church at Corinth, and therefore he can tell us as well, even though we're not
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Corinthian, but this will be a good preventative maintenance, so we don't ever turn into that, that selfish people just need a good look at the selfless sacrifice of Christ Jesus our
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Lord. This passage today, when you look at it and you see it in context, I think everyone here is going to say, oh, that's what it means.
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We just go to 1 Corinthians chapter 11 and say, oh, it's communion. We read this passage for communion.
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Do you know this passage has nothing to do with how to conduct the Lord's Supper service.
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It has nothing to do with communion in terms of methodology. Do this, then that, then say that.
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You know what it has to do with? It has to do with if there's a problem with selfishness, let's show them the
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Lord's Supper, which is emphatically showing
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Christ Jesus the self -sacrificial Savior.
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All too often we say, oh, all right, Lord's Supper discussion. Was it wine? Was it grape juice?
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Should it be bread that we can bake and everybody can tear off a little piece showing commonness? Or should it be unleavened bread because we don't want any yeast in the bread because that signifies sin and, of course,
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Jesus didn't sin. Should we have a common cup where we just pass the chalice down and you take a drink and if you've been sick, you especially wipe it off and pass it down to Tom and then he drinks.
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Just watching if there's a spot on your cup that doesn't have any lip marks. Versus a little common plastic cup.
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What gets lost in those kinds of discussions is that Paul doesn't use the
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Lord's Supper passage in 1 Corinthians 11 to say this is how we do the
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Lord's Supper. He says this is what the Lord's Supper helps us with when we're selfish.
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Let's show the self -sacrificial one Christ Jesus the Lord. I think you'll be encouraged. I think you'll re -examine how you change.
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How do people change? One of the ways people change is you show them Christ Jesus and the Spirit of God attends to that very thing.
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Let's read the whole passage. We'll only get through half of it today. 1 Corinthians 11 in the context of public worship verses 17 through 34 and see if you can figure out what's going on here and why
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Paul would show the self -sacrificial Savior Christ Jesus who gave himself.
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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.
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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.
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For there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized.
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When you come together, it is not for the Lord's Supper that you eat. For in eating, each one of you goes ahead with his own meal.
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One goes hungry, another gets drunk. What? Do you not have houses to eat and drink in?
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Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you?
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Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not. For I receive from the
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Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when He was betrayed took bread.
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When He had given thanks, He broke it and said, This is My body which is for you.
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Do this in remembrance of Me. Same way also He took the cup after supper saying, This cup is the new covenant in My blood.
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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
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Lord's death until He comes. Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the
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Lord. Let a person examine himself then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For if anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself, that is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.
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But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the
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Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another.
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If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home. So that when you come together, it will not be for judgment.
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About other things, I will give you directions when I come. Here's the background culturally.
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And if you get this, I think it'll help you understand what's going on. We have pot providences on Sunday night, sometimes in the morning.
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Potlucks, people call them blasphemously. Carry -in dinners, they say in Kansas.
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And so what do we do? We say, well, what can we bring that's easy to make?
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You can just put a bunch of stuff in a pan and then bake it and throw some tater tots on the top, tater tot casserole, some kind of green bean thing or whatever, with some gravy or broth or something.
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I'm not talking about what goes on in our kitchen. I have no idea. I just know there's a bunch of stuff over here, it's put in there and then it tastes good.
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Some brownies or something, so you bring it. And what we do is we all line up and we go through the line and everyone takes some and your kids take about 10 desserts and go through the line.
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But that's not what we were talking about here, our pot providence, where you bring food expecting to share.
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In that culture, you would have a basket. And if you were going to someone's house, if you were going to a person's home, especially if you were rich, you would have a basket full and you'd bring your own dinner.
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Just bring your own dinner. And you put all kinds of stuff in there. And just like if you're going to have a picnic at the
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Hollywood Bowl and sit out or picnic at the, where do we go here? The tweeter center. Do you do that?
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Good. You have my permission to do that. If you were rich, you wouldn't have to work.
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And you could go to the person's house early. And by the way, you were going to go to a rich person's house because if the church was going to gather, the church couldn't gather at a poor person's house because the poor person's house was this big.
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So if you're going to get 50, 30, 80 people in someone's home, it has to be a rich home. So they're home already.
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You get there early because you're rich and you've got a basket full of all kinds of goodies, all kinds of special smoked
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Gouda and all kinds of luscious things, sushi. And you bring those things over and you just hang out all day and you eat your own stuff.
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The poor people who were poor and who were slaves and who were agrarian workers, they worked all day.
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And by the way, it wasn't out at five o 'clock and clock out. You worked all day long until the sun went down and then you got to quickly go to...
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They had little fast food kind of market things. They didn't have drive -through or anything, but you could just walk up quickly, order some stuff and bring it.
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But it was meager, it was measly. And so they would show up at the same house.
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Furthermore, back in the culture, the rich people had this pecking order so that the dining room, which would hold maybe 30 if you had a huge house, the leader of the family could set the people who were the richest way up front.
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Those that didn't have quite as much back here. And so you could walk into a living room and you knew who was on first. You knew who was the richest, you knew who had the most power, you knew who was in politics.
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They were all up at the front. So now imagine it's 7 .30 at night and here comes the poor people coming to celebrate the
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Lord's Supper. To celebrate the Lord's death. For all those who would believe,
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Jew and Gentile, slave and free, male, female, rich, poor.
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Politics or one in politics or one who was a serf. And they would walk in with their pita bread and some maybe hummus slapped on if they had some money.
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And they would walk into the house. And these people have been partying all day. The rich people should have brought extra.
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If you're a rich person and you realize all my riches are from God anyway and I have extra and the
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Bible even teaches one of the reasons why rich people have money and a lot of money is so they can have money to help other people.
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That's one of the reasons why it's a good thing to work for extra money. To have money to help other people. And so here you are eating all these great things and you should be saying,
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I should probably bring a basket for somebody else. I should probably bring a few baskets.
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I should probably bring a lot of food for my brothers in Christ who maybe they're my slave during the day but at night equal.
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So that's what's happening here at Corinth. Our outline this morning is simple. And that is 1st
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Paul diagnoses the problem, criticizes it and then offers the solution.
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Now the problem here is selfishness in a church with communion but if you say to yourself, Lord, I know
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I'm selfish and I'd like to be more selfless. Help me see that in me and then help me be more like Christ.
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I think that would be a great prayer for you to pray as we see this problem at Corinth. Certainly we could be more loving.
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I hear it all the time. This church isn't. I hear from our own people. Not much anymore but they'll say our church isn't loving.
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I think what they mean is I'm not loving but if you mean that and you want to talk to me about it, that's fine.
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But if you say our church isn't loving, you're telling me you're not loving because you're part of the church.
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So if the church isn't loving because we're looking down on poor people and we're not thinking about love which wants what's best for other people, agape love, then this is good for our church to say we'd like to be more loving to people, more self -giving to people.
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How do we do it? First we recognize it and then we see the cure of Christ Jesus. So let's do the diagnosis first and then the cure.
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The diagnosis or the rebuke to begin with verses 17 through 22 and then the solution for the diagnosis.
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Point number one, the diagnosis of selfishness. And wow is this hot.
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Compared to Paul earlier in the chapter, now Paul severely rebukes them. Verse 17, but in following instructions
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I do not commend you. Oh wait a second, look back at verse 2. Now I commend you because you remember me and everything.
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He commended them regarding these traditions that Paul would teach and then what he would talk about head coverings and how they were fond of Paul but now it changes on a dime.
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But in the following instructions, I do not commend you because when you come together, you come together, it's not for the better but for the worst.
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If you're not going to celebrate the Lord's Supper properly, don't celebrate it at all. Wow, but it's for the worst.
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It's for evil. Aren't you supposed to get together, come together, assemble together to say, you know what, they'll know we're
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Christians by our love, not just our love for Christ Jesus vertically but horizontally for other people.
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We used to be all wrapped up in ourselves and now because of what God has done in our life and He's not only justified us, declared us righteous based on the work of His Son, He's also regenerated us and He's given us a new nature.
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We're little Christ as it were that we follow Christ, we're like Christ. We haven't arrived yet but we're becoming more and more sanctified by His grace.
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And he said, if you're going to celebrate it this way, then quit celebrating the Lord's Supper. You're worse off if you celebrate the
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Lord's Supper when by your attitudes and then actions, you deny what the Supper represents.
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Free forgiveness, full grace for everyone, everyone who believes is equal. By the way, there's a reason at Bethlehem Bible Church, we have the communion table down here and there's a reason why
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I get served last. There's a reason why I don't go like this because I, during communion along with the elders, are equal to you.
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I'm not above you, I'm not your mediator. Aren't you glad I'm not your mediator? For those of you who know me well, you're like, praise the
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Lord. Because we're equal, all of us.
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No matter how much money you have, you don't get served first. No matter what position you have in the church, you don't get served first.
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And is there a reason why we keep the bread to the very end and we say, let's eat this together. We don't say if you make over $200 ,000 a year, go ahead, you go first.
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Okay, you make less than $25 ,000 a year, you go last. Everybody's together. So Paul says, you're doing more harm than good.
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And he gets after them. Verse 18, for in the first place, stop there.
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He doesn't say there's a second place and a third place. This isn't point one of three, this is point one of one.
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So why would you say in the first place? I say it all the time to my kids. Number one, then
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I tell them some stuff. I never go to number two. They're probably just waiting there. Okay, number two, they're waiting for some baptistic alliteration.
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Number one, then number two. Maybe I need to say to your kids, number one, first of all, why do
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I say that? There's no second of all. The reason I say it is because it's a way to use the language, both
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Greek and in English, to say this is really important. Listen. So he says in the first place, when you come together as a church, look at the language again, assemble, come together, we're all one, unity.
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I hear that there are divisions among you, and I believe it in part. Now, Paul's far away.
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He's getting the letter, and the letter says there's factions. He's like, yeah, I believe that.
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He's a realist, and he understands. Chapter one, verse 10 and following. I am of Apollos.
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I am of Paul. I am of Cephas. I am the Lord. Theological, philosophical disunity.
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This has nothing to do with following a person, following a personality, following a theological system.
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This has to do with divisions based on economics. And whether it's a theological division, or an economical division, or a personality division, division in the churches are wrong.
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Schismata is the Greek word for division. And he says, I believe it. I understand.
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You come together for worship, and there are divisions? That shouldn't be. You are common with your
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Christianity. By the way, we are a fairly eclectic group as I look out. It's a pretty eclectic group.
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What binds us together? Some of you I have nothing in common with, except your family.
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How can that be? Because we're united in Christ Jesus. This is the body of Christ, even though we're different.
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Sad irony. The Corinthians would come together, but really be miles apart in their heart.
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That's not the way Jesus would act. Verse 19, for there must be factions among you, in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized.
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I'll tell you why I can't praise you. Because you get together, and then there are factions. And whether it's theology, personality, socioeconomic factions, those are all bad.
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But the good news is, at least you can tell who's faithful. At least you can tell when there's a church split, when there's factions, you can see who's acting with agape, acting self -sacrificially, acting selflessly, and you can tell who's acting self -ish -ly.
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Follow me. Rally around me. So Paul says, out of a bad thing, something good can happen.
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You can recognize those who are genuine among you. There's a benefit that God can extract out of uncommendable behavior.
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Who are the faithful? Who are the trustworthy? Who are the ones who really love?
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Verse 20, Paul continues to diagnose their problem when you come together. Notice that? Come together, assemble together, among you, among you.
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It's not the Lord's supper that you eat. Whose supper is it? It's the rich person's supper.
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It's the sinful person's supper. It's your supper. Now, if he said, it's not Jesus' supper.
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Jesus is the word for the name of Christ. His human name.
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If he would have said, it's not the Messiah's supper. Well, it's not the anointed king's supper. But here he picks the word
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Lord. Why? Because it's the Lord's supper. You come to my house, I'm the king of my house.
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I'm the king of the castle. I'm the lord of my castle. And so when you come into my house, and you come over and I invite you, you lay the gifts over here by the door, and you walk in my home, and I'm the
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Lord. And I'm the one who says, why don't we just sit down, and why don't we pray? Why don't we have dessert?
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Why don't we have dessert afterwards? Would you like some coffee? Then maybe we'll have desserts. Let's sit over here by the fire.
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I make the shots. I call the shots, because I'm lord of my house. By the way, for all you young men who are still living at home, and you want to be lord of your house, get a move on.
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Sorry, this isn't a parenting class. Verse 21,
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For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. Yet the riches, the rich people do.
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The haves do. The have -nots, you come later. Each one goes ahead with his own meal.
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Assemble together, come together, fellowship together, worship Jesus together, his own meal.
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One goes hungry, another gets drunk. This is not the Lord's Supper.
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This is the drunkard's supper. No love, no unity.
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Partaking in communion in a way that denies the actual event that you're celebrating. There's nothing wrong with getting some place at noon and having some food.
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But when you're not bringing some to share with those who are poor, you're not acting selflessly.
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If you get drunk, you're not acting self -less -ly. It's the selfish supper.
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It's not Jesus's supper, not the Lord's Supper. Paul had no patience for those who gave preferential treatment to people in the church.
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It's not the Lord's Supper, Paul says. It's their supper. The haves and the have -nots.
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Paul says, you know what it's like? It's like when a bunch of pagans get together and worship Dionysius with wine and say, you know what, let's just celebrate
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Bacchanalianism and just get drunk. That's what it's like. Selfish.
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Verse 22, what? Do you not have houses to eat and drink in?
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Now see, remember, we think that we go to the church building. But in those days, they didn't have a church building, so they'd go to somebody's house.
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But when the church is getting together, it's not really your house anymore. It's a church. Or do you despise the church of God?
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Look at all these rhetorical questions He just uses to make a point. Three rhetorical questions in English. And humiliate those who have nothing?
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What shall I say to you? Congratulations? Shall I commend you in this? Way to go.
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Way to treat the poor people. No, I will not. Paul says,
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I'm not going to tolerate it. He's going to rebuke that kind of behavior. And so here
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Paul turns in verse 22 to talk to the selfish people, to the haves, not the have -nots.
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And he addresses them because it's to their shame. Vain said in his commentary, guests of a different rank were served different dishes and wines of different qualities according to their respective dignities.
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So if you're rich and you're powerful and you're sitting up by the super nice seat, boy, you get the lobster, you get the crab.
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I don't know what they ate back in those days. You get the good snails. You get the salmon roe.
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I don't know what you get. And then down here, you get the scraps from the table.
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You get nothing. And you could just look at somebody's plate and go, I know exactly where they are in the pecking order of this particular church.
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Pecking order? Paul says, no, I don't praise you for that.
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Everybody at the foot of the cross is an equal sinner. And everybody at the foot of the cross is equally forgiven.
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Who's forgiven here? Who's justified more here than anyone else? Oh, I have more of Christ's righteousness than you do.
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No, everybody has Christ's perfect righteousness imputed to your account. Paul blisters them.
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My mom used to say, go inside, you're going to get a blistering. And I always think, is dad home?
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I want mom's blistering more than dad's. How can you be so insensitive,
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Paul says. Well, then he gives a solution. And Paul could have said, like he does elsewhere, let's have some put on, put off behavior.
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If you say, you know what, I struggle with laziness, then work. I struggle with telling the truth.
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I lie, then tell the truth. And it's do the opposite. You say to kids, no hitting, hands are for loving.
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Paul could have said that. Stop being selfish. Share. Would have been great.
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That would have been Ephesians 4, no problem. But Paul says, stop being selfish. Let me show you the selfless
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Christ. That's the solution found in verse 23 and following.
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Let's take a look at it. What a great passage. Again, he's not intending this so that we know exactly what to do during the
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Lord's Supper. Although it's helpful, it's not found in Acts through Revelation, except right here.
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He's using this to give a contrast on what Jesus did at the Lord's Supper at the last supper compared to what they were doing at their drunkard supper.
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Rehearsing what Jesus did, remembering Christ Jesus, the one who didn't come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for.
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Selfish people need a good look at Christ Jesus. Verse 23. For I received from the Lord, Lord again, the boss,
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Adonai, sovereign king, what I delivered to you. Stop there for a minute.
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Paul didn't learn anything from any man. Galatians 1, 12 and following. Jesus himself taught
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Paul and gave Paul the theological baton and said, Paul, don't drop it.
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Don't alter it. Don't modify it. Don't make accommodations for it. Don't compromise it.
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You pass that on. Paul says, I got that theological baton from Jesus himself and I passed it on to you.
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I was there for 18 months and I did that. This is nothing new. These people knew all this. This is technical language, like 1
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Corinthians chapter 15. I received from the Lord what I delivered to you. I didn't change anything.
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I don't know if you ever go to a place that has a little number they give to you and you go back to your seat. It's a restaurant.
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And then the guy comes over with your hamburger. And as he's coming over, he's picking off the onions that you ordered, picking off the pickles and wiping off the mustard with a napkin and then gives it to you.
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And you say, I ordered one with red onions with mustard and mayo and pickles.
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It's a pastor's job. It's the elder's job. If you teach Sunday school, if you teach a home group, your job is to take what
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Jesus taught you from the Word and deliver it. It's relevant. It's meaningful.
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And your job is to be faithful. Paul said, that's exactly what I did. And what was he talking about specifically?
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Look at how Paul rehearses this. Verse 23, how do you help selfish people? Show them
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Christ Jesus. That the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed, took bread.
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When he had given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you.
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Talk about sacrificial. Talk about selfless. Do this in remembrance of me.
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The same way he also 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.
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He received that message from Jesus. He passed that on. And this message where Christ gave himself freely to bear the wrath we earned, so he might reconcile us to God, all because it was
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Christ's love that did it. Paul says, I want you to remember that. Look what he says there, betrayed on the night in which he was betrayed.
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Why would he talk that way? I think I know why he's talking that way. On the night when Judas acted as selfishly as possible.
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Who could be more selfish than Judas? Who's earned hell more than Judas? The man who gave over Christ Jesus, the spotless lamb for money.
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And on the night that Jesus was the recipient of selfishness, here's this great shining star of Christ Jesus.
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The one who is sacrificially giving himself. Philippians chapter 2, he's not counting it a thing to be grasped.
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He does willingly what the Father asked him to do. Go die for the elect. Maybe Paul is thinking this way as well.
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That word betrayed can also mean handed over or given over. The exact language from Isaiah chapter 53 verse 6, the
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Lord gave him up for our sins. And Isaiah 53 verse 12, the exact same
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Greek language of the Hebrew Bible. His life was given up to death and he was given up on account of their sins.
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Jesus gave himself. So you have the Lord's Supper and the whole time you remember, God loves me in Christ Jesus.
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Jesus died for me. Jesus accomplished redemption. I didn't do anything. I contributed sin. Jesus did it all.
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All to him I owe. But then when we celebrate it, the poor people, you can sit over there.
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And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, verse 24, this is my body which is for you.
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Do this in remembrance of me. Now, if you're going to celebrate Passover back in those days, the head of the family, he would do a variety of things that Jesus did here as the head of his men.
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The beginning of a meal, he would bless God and give thanks for his provision, recognizing the goodness of God, redemption of God at Passover time.
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And then Jesus has the gall to say, when it comes to Passover from now on, you do this
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Passover service. When the angel of God came over and passed over and didn't kill the firstborn because blood had already been shed, there'd been a sacrifice.
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Now, instead of celebrating Passover, every time you drink this cup and eat this bread, you do it in remembrance of who says that except the incarnate
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Son of God. Who talks that way? People that go, well, Jesus was a great teacher, but that was about it.
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Great teacher? This guy, if he wasn't Yahweh, he was a megalomaniac.
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By the way, when you do Passover, think of me. What would you think if we had the Lord's Supper? And I said, now everybody take the cup and let's drink it together.
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Fellowship. Friends, do this in remembrance of Mike Avendroff. I think you'd wait for the punchline, and then you would get the shepherd's crook.
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Rightfully so. And here Jesus turns the Passover supper.
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Actually, He doesn't turn it. He ends it. This is the last Passover ever that meant anything in God's eyes.
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And it became simultaneously the new Lord's Supper. And it's all because God blesses sinners by His own will,
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His own choice, His own initiative. Do this now in remembrance of me. This is my body.
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I'm a man, and I live in your place as representative. And this body is going to be crushed.
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When Jesus said it, it was Calvary future for us. We look back at it now. Jesus died.
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He's a real man who died, and He was more than man. He was God. And when it says, this is my body, which is for you, if a
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Jewish man even today leads a Passover Seder, he'll remind them that certain things are representative of truths.
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He'll say, well, this leaven that's not around the house, why do we need unleavened bread, in other words?
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Because we need to remind ourselves, Exodus 12, that they had been brought out of Egypt, for it was not unleavened, excuse me, not leavened, because they were thrust out of Egypt and could not wait.
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And so it's very common back in those days and even today. Here's something, unleavened bread, it symbolizes something.
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So you can remember. Bitter herbs, same thing. Exodus 12 and Numbers 9, the embittered lives of the
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Israelites underneath the Egyptians. So now instead of herbs and leaven for a
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Passover service, Jesus says, here's the bread and now you remember me. Remember my affliction.
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And what Paul is trying to do here is you take communion in a way that resembles what it is.
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That is to say, since Jesus was the sacrificial lamb and gave himself for people, then we ought to be sacrificial.
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Not because we're trying to atone for sins, but Jesus is not selfish. We ought not to act selfishly when we're talking about his selflessness.
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Let's all get together and focus on Jesus's sacrificial giving while we're all selfish.
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Paul says it's incongruent. It doesn't make any sense. We're talking about loving one another and then being selfish.
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It doesn't work. His body was for us, in our place, on our behalf.
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That's substitution language from 2 Corinthians 5 and Galatians 3. Jesus doesn't say, build a monument for me.
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Go to Israel outside of Jerusalem and build some nice Ebenezer. The Lord has helped me thus far.
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And carve something into the side of Mount Hermon, looking like Mount Rushmore or something.
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And once a year you go there and you make a trip, a pilgrimage to go remember. He doesn't do that at all.
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Jesus has already been called the Passover Lamb in chapter 5. Jesus is the new
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Passover Lamb. Died for us because He loved us. Because He loved the
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Father. He gave Himself. For God so loved the world, He gave.
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God demonstrates His love for us that while we are yet sinners, Christ died for us. And the meal is supposed to be reflective of that.
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We're all one in Christ Jesus. And the cup too. Look at the next verse.
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This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it. But I didn't read the first part.
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In the same way also He took the cup after supper. Well, that's interesting. This is not a prescription.
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This is not methodologically how we must do it. But here's what they did then. Have the bread at the beginning of the service.
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Jesus, we're to remember you. This is your body broken for us. Then have food.
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Have a supper. And then at the end, have the cup. So now everything about the supper is bookend between Jesus' life for us,
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Jesus' death for us, and everything in between. You can think through how good God is, how bountiful God is.
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If God gives you the greatest gift, Christ Jesus, won't He give us everything else like fellowship, friendship, church, food?
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And so what you do and what we'll do in May, when Jeremy Smith is here on a Sunday night, we're going to have the
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Lord's Supper with the bread first. And then we'll eat. And then we'll have the cup.
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It doesn't have to be done that way. But isn't that a good reminder? So everything done in between, it's not, well,
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I'm eating because it's healthy. I'm eating because I am, or I'm not going to eat because I'm fasting.
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This will also, by the way, help you. I'm going to be very fascinated to see how this plays out because if you're at the end of the line of one of our pot providences here, and you're stuck with kind of the diced carrot pea thing with whatever that is, spam inside of it,
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I don't know. I wonder if the way we act and the way we let our kids act, going through the line, piling stuff on with the only stuff left over is the brine gravy for those who are in the back of the line.
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Or I wonder if we say, you know, we just thought about self -sacrificial giving. Let's have supper.
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You can go first. I wonder if I'll cut into the front of the line like I usually do anymore. Well, I only cut.
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I shouldn't say I only cut, but I do cut for many reasons. And the number one reason is because I need to eat, digest, and then get up and talk again.
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But number two, I like to eat what my wife makes. And I only can eat that. I can't touch your food.
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No, that's not true. Remember when you were a kid? Mom, what'd you make? Okay, I can only have that. In the same way after supper, he took the cup.
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What's the point? Self -sacrificial giving, bread. We have the Lord's supper exemplified in our real eating by everybody's equal, everybody's the same.
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And then we have the cup. Paul, I think, was onto something there. This cup is the new covenant, the unilateral covenant from God.
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God alone makes in our favor of all things at His Son's expense.
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Grace for us, free. Redemption for us costs
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God His Son. As often as you observe communion, you think to yourself,
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God is the sacrificial one. And I'm thankful for my forgiveness. But I also want to act more and more selflessly.
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Wrapping things up here quickly, take a look at the word cup there in verse 25. When you would see the word cup back in those days, thinking like a
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Jewish person would, the cup is figuratively used for undergoing violent death.
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I'm sure they would read that cup as violent death. It's reminding me of that.
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Isaiah 51, O Jerusalem, you have drunk from the Lord's hand the cup of His anger.
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The chalice of reeling you have drained to the dregs. Psalm 75,
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For a cup is in the hand of the Lord and the wine foams. It is well mixed and He pours it out of this.
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Surely all the wicked of the earth must drain and drink it down to the dregs. And didn't, in fact, our
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Lord Jesus in the garden talk about the cup that He would like to have pass?
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He's not talking about a cup full of liquid. He's talking about the cup of God's almighty wrath that we earned poured out on Him and He didn't deserve any of it.
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But He said, I'll do your will, Father. There's any other way, but I'll submit to your goodwill.
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So what's the point, congregation? The point is, since Jesus was self -giving, emulate
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Christ. This is a true case where you say to yourself, what did
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Jesus do? What did Jesus do? I ought to do the same thing.
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You can't do everything that Jesus does because you don't want to fast for 40 days. You don't want to try to forgive sins, but you can do this.
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This is appropriate. What did Jesus do? I should do too. It's the
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Lord's supper. So what about homework for this week?
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How would you like to be more like Christ? More self -giving? More sacrificial?
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Then how do you do it? Try harder? Do better? I mean, I put little post -it cards in my office sometimes, encouraged, because lots of people never get encouraged, and I just want to try to encourage them.
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But a better homework assignment should be, pick one of the Gospels today, Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, and read it this week.
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It won't hardly take you any time. And as you read it, say, as you open up the Bible, Lord, you have rich treasures in here, and I want to learn more about Christ, because I'd like to learn more about Christ so I can be more like Christ.
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I want to imitate Christ more. So you focus on Christ Jesus. You say, well, that interrupts my psalm reading, my
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Proverbs reading. I will give you a divine dispensation not to read those things.
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Or you can read that in addition to. How do you take selfish people and help them to be motivated to be sacrificial and to deny self and to die to self?
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Answer, show them Christ. Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons, and kneeling before him, she asked him for something.
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You know she did. And he said to her, what do you want? She said, say to these two sons of mine, you were to sit one at your right hand and one at your left hand in your kingdom.
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Jesus answered, you do not know what you're asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink? We are able.
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You will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant. But it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my father.
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And when the ten heard it, they were selfish too. They wanted in on the action. They were indignant at the two brothers.
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But Jesus called them to him and said, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them.
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Their great ones exercise authority over them. Shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant.
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And whoever would be first among you, you must be your slave.
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You must be your slave, brethren. Even as the son of man. How do you solve a problem with selfish apostles?
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Show them Christ Jesus. Even as the son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.
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Thank you, Father, for our time today. To think that Jesus Christ would come and die in our place, on our behalf, in our stead, after we had earned your anger.
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That you would place that anger on Christ Jesus and he would drink the cup. He'd drink all the cup.
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Because you love us, because the son loves us, and the spirit loves us. What a great sacrifice you made when you sent your son.
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What a great sacrifice it was for Jesus. Deserving worship, receive the crown of thorns, and much more your wrath.
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Father, we're thankful that the story doesn't end there, that you raised Jesus from the dead. And then you equip the church through men like Paul to help us understand.
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I pray for Bethlehem Bible Church today. There'd be no divisions theologically, no divisions methodologically, no divisions because of money.
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Father, I pray that the rich could love the poor and the poor could love the rich. The men could love the women and the women could love the men.
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And Father, that we would emulate, even in a couple of weeks when we have the Lord's Supper, we'd act like we understand the passage, that you'd help us.
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And Father, this week, would you show us Christ Jesus, mighty and lifted up in the scriptures, as we wanna give you honor by being less selfish.