Make certain Lord's Supper is honoring to Christ

September 23, 2002

BaptistWay Bible Study for Texas lesson for Oct. 27

Make certain Lord's Supper is honoring to Christ

__1 Corinthians 11:17-34
___¹⁷In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. ¹⁸In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. ¹⁹No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God's approval. ²⁰When you come together, it is not the Lord's Supper you eat, ²¹for as you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk. ²²Don't you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you for this? Certainly not!
___²³For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, ²⁴and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me." ²⁵In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me." ²⁶For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
___²⁷Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. ²⁸A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. ²⁹For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. ³⁰That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. ³¹But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment. ³²When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world.
___³³So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for each other. ³⁴If anyone is hungry, he should eat at home, so that when you meet together it may not result in judgment.
___And when I come I will give further directions.

____By Mike Chancellor
___If God penned a letter to your church family about its worship and observances, would it include the tragic words, "for your meetings do more harm than good"? (v. 17).
___Sadly, this could be said about the worship and Lord's Supper in many congregations. Churches may function in pain (be dysfunctional), giving an unfavorable picture of both the Christ of the church and the fellowship of believers in the church.
___More harm than good
___Context is vital to understanding the message of Scripture. It is true for the text before us. While it is impossible to know all the details of the problems in the Corinthian church, we do know that in some way, the congregation came together as a church to share the Lord's Supper. While some details are subject to discussion and interpretation, it appears these gatherings were preceded by a general meal that ended in the celebration of the Lord's Supper.
___The Apostle Paul notes such times were destructive to the fellowship of the church because of two things. First, this fellowship included the "haves" and the "have nots." There was no effort to supply every member with enough to eat in these meals. Poorer members sat and watched the wealthy folks feast.
___In addition, the observance of the Lord's Supper that followed was a denial of all for which the meal stood. The themes of Christ's sacrifice, the equality of sinners saved by grace, the seamless fellowship of believers and the joyful anticipation of the return of Christ were lost in the drunken finality of the meal.
___As we consider this lesson together, we might want to ask some questions about the way our church observes the Lord's Supper. What is the present context of our observances? What place does the Lord's Supper have in the worship of our church? Do we habitually try to make sure all are treated equally within the body for whom Christ died? Do we attempt to bring the church to the Lord's Supper in a worthy manner?
___The meaning of the meal
___ The body of Christ. The Lord's Supper is an observance that does not convey grace to the participant, but it should create an environment whereby believers meditate on the death of Christ and what that death means to the believer and to the church. His broken body and shed blood are brought near to believers as they hold the symbols in their hands. The bread we hold and the cup we share are vivid reminders of the sufferings and the sacrifice of Christ.
___ The new covenant. The cup of Christ is not only linked to his shed blood but also to a new covenant offered to believers who come through Christ to God. It is a covenant of grace, not of law. It is a covenant activated and kept alive by the Holy Spirit in the life of each believer. The presence and work of the Holy Spirit in the disciple's life moves each along toward maturity in Christ.
___ The message proclaimed. The observance of the Lord's Supper is a profound proclamation to the world that the church is about the business of worshipping Christ and inviting others to Christ.
___ A family that draws together those who have been separated by sin. The Lord's Supper is about a fellowship of sinners saved by grace. It demonstrates a unity born out of a common condition, a common rescue, a common faith and a common Spirit (Ephesians 4:1-6). The symbols of sharing a common table, a common loaf, a common cup and the uncommon Savior all point to a broken world being reconciled in Christ.
___Not quite good enough
___While sacramental observances of the Lord' Supper are central to the worship of some churches, Baptists generally give priority to the word of God shared through the medium of preaching. A simple visit to a sacramental church underscores the difference.
___In the sanctuary of the Baptist church, the pulpit is the central focus of the room. In the other church, the altar occupies that central place. Because of that difference in emphasis, the observance of the Lord's Supper has sometimes languished in worship. Often, it is attached to the end of a worship service, and only at certain times of the year.
___Yet Paul tells us our Lord gave great meaning to the meal. In some ways, through the sharing of the meal, we gather up and summarize all our faith is about. It should set the tone for all we do in the fellowship of the church.
___The Lord's Supper should emphasize the reconciling work of the church. Congregations embroiled in controversy within the fellowship make a travesty of the Lord's Supper. The meal is about God reaching out and drawing us back into fellowship with him. It is about forgiveness and mercy from his heart to each of us. When we come to the Lord's table with broken relationships, we bear witness to the errors in those relationships.
___The Lord's Supper should emphasize the good news of grace. The invitation that frames the Lord's Supper is necessary because no one has an inherent right to approach the presence of the Lord. The net of grace draws widely and gathers up diverse kinds of people with diverse experiences and diverse failures. All are drawn together by a common grace that extends to all and over all one has done. The public failures are no more reprehensible than the private sins one shares only with God.
___The Lord's Supper is both proclamation and sober warning. Whenever we come together for the Lord's Supper, we are brought back to the roots and mission of the church. We are to proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
___In many ways, the Lord's Supper looks back to a once-for-all historical happening, the results of which have abiding benefits in the present. It has some of the same character of the Passover meal, which it fulfilled.
___The sober warning of the meal is that Christ is coming back. It is understandable that an unbelieving world does not listen to the warning about the return of Christ. It is unfathomable when the church has the same deaf ear to the coming of Christ.
___When obedience characterizes the people of God, Christ's return is anticipated as a blessing beyond description. When disobedience characterizes the people of God, his return should be properly seen as a day of reckoning that implores us to repent and change.
___Think and pray before you partake
___When we say the Lord's Supper is an ordinance, that does not mean it is without power. Paul points out that the cavalier way in which the meal was observed in the Corinthian fellowship was a reason for all sorts of physical symptoms--even death. His counsel is one we should heed. We should come to the Lord's table with clean hands and a clean heart.
___The admonition to avoid partaking of the Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner is not meant to steer imperfect people away from sharing the Lord's table. Rather, it is to keep us from coming to the table with behavior that contradicts the core meaning of the meal. Like the encouragement to wash up before a feast in our home, Paul calls us to "clean up" our hearts and our behavior before we take up the bread and the cup.
___We should examine ourselves before the meal. The Greek word used here for "examine" can mean "to separate" or "to test."
___There seems to be two key ideas in this admonition. First, we are to note the difference between this time and other times--this meal and other meals. We are to separate it. We are to see its intrinsic holiness.
___The Lord's Supper is not an ordinary gathering or occurrence. For this very reason, we are to test ourselves. While sinners saved by grace are not excluded, the obvious attitudes and behaviors pulsating through our lives need careful scrutiny.
___To come to a table of mercy while denying others mercy is wrong. To come to a table of reconciliation while refusing to be reconciled denies the truth that brings us to the Lord. To make distinctions among people at any level while God calls all who need him to come offends the Lord. We should look carefully at ourselves before we take up the bread and the juice.
___We should narrow our sight when we come to the table. So much of the preaching and teaching that surrounds the Lord's Supper asks us to look beyond ourselves and to see a world without Christ. In the Lord' Supper, we are called to abandon that focus and turn our gaze to ourselves before God.
___This change has two powerful outcomes. First, it contradicts our tendency to look at others for the wrong reason at the wrong time. In the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 7:1-6) Jesus condemns the practice of looking at others to find fault instead of need. It is a powerful temptation. It also leads us away from overlooking our own shortcomings.
___The prayerful testing of ourselves against the backdrop of the living symbols of Christ's unfailing, sacrificial love, his unconditional mercy and his abundant grace should bring us to a renewing encounter with the Lord who gave himself for us.
___It is the Lord's Supper. Come. Take. Eat. Drink. Be transformed!

Questions for thought and discussion
___ As you prepare your heart for discussing this lesson on Sunday, how would you describe your relationship and experience with the Lord's Supper? What have been the most meaningful observances for you?
___ How does your church observe the Lord's Supper? Are there some ways the meal has been shared that have been particularly meaningful to you?
___ In many churches, because of the problems with the Corinthian church and their experience of the Lord's Supper, there is a reluctance to share the Lord's Supper in the context of another fellowship meal. Do you see how this might present some problems? Do you see how the Lord's Supper experience might be enhanced by being shared at the conclusion of a fellowship meal in your church?
___ Because of our understanding of the Lord's Supper as being an ordinance and not a sacrament, the symbolism of the meal becomes very important. The symbols point us to the reality of the meaning beyond the meal. How does your church's observance preserve the symbols of the broken body of Christ, the shed blood of Christ, the Lord's table, the fellowship of believers, and the spiritual importance of the observance? Are there some ways your church observes the Lord's Supper that obscures the meaning of the elements and the meal? How could your church do a better job of preserving the symbols that convey the meaning?
___ How does the Lord's Supper help your church proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ?

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