Communion Must Be Taken Seriously

Transcript

GR 1341
12-10-06
Communion Must Be Taken Seriously
I Corinthians 11:27-34
Gil Rugh

We're looking into the Bible at I Corinthians and we're in chapter 11. The last part of I Corinthians 11 is about an event that focuses on the significance of the death of Christ, and as we celebrate the birth of Christ, we are reminded that He was born to die. He came to be the Savior, He came to give His life a ransom for many, He came to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And on the last night that He had before His crucifixion He spent with His disciples and they had a meal. And at that meal He took bread and broke it and said, this is my body which is for you. And He took the cup and shared it with them and said, this cup is the New Covenant in my blood. And they were to be reminded of Him as often as they partook of it.

I Corinthians 11:17-34, the Apostle Paul has been rebuking and correcting the church at Corinth for a failure to conduct what we would call the Lord's Supper or the Communion service in a proper manner. They were coming to this observance with selfish and self-centered attitudes. And in that time, you remember, they had a meal in the context of partaking of the bread and cup. And at that meal everyone brought their own food, and those who were more well off brought plenty of good food. And those who were very poor didn't have much to bring. And they had turned this time which was to focus on Jesus Christ and the significance of His death into a time of selfish satisfaction, the well-to-do stuffing themselves, the poor going without. And the real importance and significance of the event was being lost. So Paul rebuked them in verses 17-22, and then in verses 23-26 he tells them that the Lord Himself directly revealed to him the truth concerning this service and its significance.

We looked through some of these verses together in our last study. Let me remind you of a few things. We noted that there are three views on the Communion service, I'll say something about the names used in a moment. The first view we looked at was transubstantiation, the view of the Roman Catholic Church, which teaches that an actual change occurs in the bread and in the juice or the wine that is to be shared. When the priest pronounces his blessing over those elements, an actual, literal change occurs in the elements. It is a change not perceptible to your senses, so it still seems to be bread, seems to be wine to your physical senses, but it has actually, literally and really become the literal, physical body of Christ and the literal, physical blood of Christ. We noted that's why, some of you are from Roman Catholic background so you are familiar with it, that anything left over from the mass, the celebration of the Eucharist, must be gathered up and it's put into a container and placed above the altar and then when a Roman Catholic comes to the altar they genuflect before that because that's literally the body and blood of Christ. The priest has the power and the authority, given from the bishop, from the Pope, to actually bring about the transformation of those elements into the literal body and blood. But you cannot change it back to just bread and juice or wine. So it has been permanently changed into the body and blood of Christ and thus must be respected and handled accordingly. Most Roman Catholics believe that this is what is called the unbloody sacrifice. Every time the Eucharist, the mass, is celebrated then you have an unbloody sacrifice, a re-sacrifice of Christ, the continuing of His once-for-all sacrifice on the cross only in an unbloody manner. And this actually communicates grace, it is a sacrament and it is a necessary part of salvation for a Roman Catholic as one of their seven sacraments. That's transubstantiation.

Consubstantiation, many of you are Lutheran background and this is the view of Martin Luther. Remember Martin Luther was a Roman Catholic monk. When he left Roman Catholicism he abandoned transubstantiation, but he had to go somewhere and he didn't want to go all the way over to view it as a figurative or just a memorial service, so he adopted what is called consubstantiation. And that basically teaches Christ is present with the elements, but the elements themselves do not undergo a change. But when you partake of the elements, you are partaking of Christ, and thus it is a sacrament, means of grace. It is a difficult concept to grasp, it's hard to grasp with the human mind. Transubstantiation, there is a literal change that occurs but we understand what is being said. But consubstantiation, that Christ is present some way with the elements, and from time to time this has become hard to distinguish from pantheism in some of the ways that it is argued. Pantheism teaches that God is not only present everywhere, but He is present in everything. Christ is in the tree, Christ or God is in the wood, Christ is in the flower, Christ is in everything. That's pantheism. Luther didn't believe in pantheism, but the arguments were that Christ is present everywhere, He's omnipresent, He is present everywhere, but He is not present in everything. He's not part of everything. The line of thinking went, well if He is present everywhere, when you partake of the bread and cup, then you're partaking of Christ. The problem with that, that would also mean when you have a peanut butter sandwich for lunch, you would be partaking of Christ. So obviously Christ being present everywhere, that's not the significance. But that's consubstantiation.

The third view is the view that we hold, along with many other churches, is that the Communion service is just a memorial, it is a figurative portrayal of Christ's death. The elements were given to represent the body of Christ and the blood of Christ. Here we are told in verse 25, that Christ said, "This cup is the New Covenant in my blood." In other words, it is my death as we saw in Hebrews 8-9, it takes the death of someone to establish a covenant. This cup represents my death and thus the establishing of the New Covenant. It's not a sacrament, we don't believe there is anything in scripture that indicates by going through some kind of physical activity we receive grace, whether it's Communion or baptism or confirmation or any other physical practice. There is no indication in the Bible that communicates in some supernatural way grace, we experience God's grace through faith in Christ, but there are not physical things you do to become a participant in God's grace.

Let me just remind you of the names of this meal. I know this is review, but I want you to have them in mind. There are several names given to this observance, the Lord's Supper. Paul uses these terms here in chapter 11 verse 20, he talks about the Lord's Supper. We continue to use that terminology, even though we don't have a full meal in association with the observance, and most people don't. We continue to call it the Lord's Supper because it was in that context that the memorial observance of partaking of the bread and cup were instituted as permanent activities. It's also called the table of the Lord in I Corinthians 10:21. Paul refers to partaking of the table of the Lord, and he is referring to this particular event. It's also called the Communion service in chapter 10 verse 16, where the word is translated sharing. "Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ?" This is where we get the word Communion, the Greek word is koinonia, a sharing, a fellowshipping, a communion, a sharing in the body and blood of Christ. In other words this reflects the fact that through faith we have come to share in His death on our behalf. So we are participants in that. So we call it the Communion service because it is a representation of our sharing in the effects of Christ's death.

Then it is also called the Eucharist, and this is not used as much by Protestants, as we noted, although I noted a paper I had written a number of years ago, I titled it, The Eucharist. But I wasn't a Roman Catholic then. It's a good word, comes from the Greek word, eucharista, which means to give thanks. And remember when Jesus broke the bread and gave the cup He gave thanks, and the Greek word was eucharista. So the Eucharist is used for this service, but it becomes a title that has become identified with the Roman Catholics and the observance of the mass, and generally Protestants don't use that term as much, just to avoid the confusion. But it's a good term, and we ought to recognize it is valid.

At least three things happen when we partake of the Communion service or the Lord's Supper. First, Christ is remembered. It's a memorial to Him, it's a reminder of Him. At the end of verse 24, when you partake of the bread, we are told, "Do this in remembrance of Me". Then when you partake of the cup at the end of verse 25," You do this in remembrance of Me." It is a reminder of Him and His finished work on the cross, that the price of our redemption was the death of the Son of God, that He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree that we should die to sin and live to righteousness, as Peter wrote in his first epistle and the second chapter. It is a remembrance, it is a memorial.

Secondly, it is a time when Christ is proclaimed. Christ is remembered and Christ is proclaimed. Down in I Corinthians 11:26, "For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes." So the partaking, doesn't say this is a repeating of the Lord's death, this is a re-sacrifice of the Lord. No, this is a proclamation of His death, because here in a visual way we are proclaiming the fact that the Son of God came to earth and took to Himself a human body and then He hung on a cross and died to pay the penalty for sin, which is death. So it is a proclamation.

And thirdly, it is a picture that believers are one body through faith in Christ. Back up to I Corinthians 10:17, "Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body. For we all partake of the one bread." And it is represented here, as we share together in partaking of the bread, representing the body of Christ, that we have become one body in Him. And that's crucial in the context of what Paul is talking about. There is no place for divisions and factions, selfish separation, because we have become one body in Him, and that's represented.

Turn over to I Corinthians 12:12, "For even as the body is one," and here he's talking about the physical body," and yet has many members, that all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ." Talking about His spiritual body, the church. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, notice he doesn't say by water we were baptized, it's a Spirit baptism here. By one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free. We were all made to drink of one Spirit. And if you were here for our study last time and the doctrine of the New Covenant, this cup is the New Covenant in my blood. That provided the Holy Spirit to indwell every believer and when we believe in Christ we become members of His spiritual body, the church. And the Holy Spirit of God takes up residence in our lives. So partaking of the bread represents the fact, we are one body, we are the people that Christ has redeemed for Himself.

With that we're ready to pick up verse 27, and in verses 27-34 Paul applies to the Corinthians what he has said about this service. And even though we've made clear that I do not believe the doctrine of transubstantiation is a Biblical doctrine, I do not believe the doctrine of consubstantiation is a Biblical doctrine. I do not believe you can support from scripture that the Communion is a sacrament that communicates grace. We must be very careful that we don't minimize the significance and importance of this observance. It is so important to God that if you do not partake of it in a proper manner, He may well strike you with physical affliction and sickness, and even take your life. And that's what had happened in the church at Corinth. We want to be sure that we understand as Protestants and Bible-believing Christians that even though we say this is just a memorial service, a reminder of the proclamation and expression of our oneness, that does not minimize its importance in the sight of God. We are talking about the death of His Son. There is nothing so important and significant in the eyes of Almighty God as the death of His Son, His only begotten Son, to pay the penalty for our sins. Woe to the person who treats that lightly. So that's what Paul is going to show the Corinthians had happened in their church, the church at Corinth.

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 blood of the Lord." That adverb, unworthy, unworthily. The idea is it's in an unworthy manner. It's not the personal matter of the individual is unworthy in that sense, because we are all unworthy, we are sinners, all unworthy and undeserving. But now we are talking about those who have been redeemed by God's grace, but they conduct themselves in the observing of this service in an unworthy manner, a manner that is not consistent with what is being represented in this service. In this context it is coming to it with divisions. We saw back up in verse 17-18, they come together as a church, assemble together when the church comes together for the observing of this service, and it's for the worse, not the better. "Because when you come together I hear that divisions exist among you". And those divisions are an indication, they are partaking of the service in an unworthy manner. This service is to represent, one of the reasons, remember we saw, their oneness as the body of Christ. And so they come together and partake of the service, one of the facets of is to demonstrate or portray the oneness they have as God's people, redeemed and made part of the body of Christ. And there are divisions among them. And they partake of it in a selfish, uncaring way. And view as the body is made up of the rich and the poor, and the rich and the poor don't necessarily interact, they just happen to be in the same place at the same time. An attitude of disdain and uncaring. It's an unworthy manner of partaking of these elements. It denies what they represent. And so to partake of it in that manner is to become guilty of the body and the blood of Christ. That word translated guilty, as you might expect, is a judicial word. It means to be liable for something, become liable for the body and blood of Christ. In other words, in conducting ourselves that way with that attitude and that kind of conduct, we step from the Lord's side and put ourselves on the side of those who crucified Him. I don't think the Corinthians meant that. That's exactly what they are doing in the sight of God, because Christ died to cleanse us, forgive us and make us one with Himself and one another as His people. And yet they're coming to this service and thinking their personal preferences, their selfish, self-centered thinking is more important than what Christ has done. And so it's a denial of that work, and so God views them as guilty. How dare you partake of these elements and yet deny the very thing that My Son died for, by your selfishness, your divisiveness, your elevating yourself above someone else, the rich thinking only of themselves and not the less fortunate in the body at Corinth.

We're going to move through these verses a little bit quickly, and I think when we get further along they all wrap together. You might think in the context, well maybe he's talking about unbelievers partaking unworthy, and thus they are guilty. No, the context makes clear as we get further along that he is talking about the church, and about believers in the church. Look at verse 28, "But a man must examine himself." Okay, now what is the solution? You're partaking in an unworthy manner, you're guilty of the body and blood of Christ. What are you to do? Let a man examine himself. Now I want you to note here, he doesn't tell you to examine someone else, he doesn't even tell me as a pastor I should examine you or you should examine me or we should examine one another. He says, let a man examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

There are three commands given here—examine, eat, drink. Now I want to be clear, so it doesn't get lost as we move through. One of the options is not for a believer to say, well, I won't partake of the elements because I don't want to partake in an unworthy manner. Because he commands us in verse 28, "Eat of the bread, drink of the cup." Those are present tense imperative commands, as is the verb examine. So I can't just say, I don't think I'll be able to do it in a worthy manner today, I really don't even want to sit next to so-and-so. I try not to be in the same Bible study where they are, or if we have anything, try not to be together around them. I have a problem with them. He's not talking about doctrinal issues that have to be dealt with, we're not talking about matters that relate to church discipline that we already saw in chapter 5. We're talking about attitudes here that are communicated in conduct. I can't say, I'm just not going to partake of the elements, then I won't be guilty. We are guilty of refusing to do what God commands you to do, and that's to eat of the elements, eat of the bread and drink of the cup in the context of examining yourself. That word to examine was used in verse 19, "There must be factions among you so that those who are approved," that word approved is the same word we have examine in verse 28. It means to put something to the test with a view of seeing its outcome. You go to a Greek Lexicon, they use the example of metals, like gold, that is tested by fire to demonstrate that it is genuine. So you are to examine yourself, test yourself carefully in light of the Word of God, and be sure you are being what God says you must be as His child, to be approved by Him. And thus partake of these elements. That's what Christ died for. So that we would be those who manifest the beauty of His character, His holiness, His righteousness as we will see in a little bit.

So I am to examine myself in the context of seeing that I am approved. If I look and examine myself and see I am not approved, then I need to correct it, I need to fix it. I don't just say, well, I'm going to stay in an unapproved state, I'm going to stay in a state that God would not approve, that is not acceptable to Him, but I'll be all right as long as I don't partake of communion. No. This is not some magical sacrament. This is of great importance, but as a child of God you cannot decide to live in obedience and escape the consequences. Paul is talking about our obedience in the context of the observing of the service together. So let a man examine himself, put himself to the test, and then eat and drink.

Look at verse 29, "For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly." This section, verses 29 and following are all about judgment. Various words for judgment, six of them used in verses 29-34. And we've translated many of them with judge or judgment to give you that flavor, as you would have in the Greek text as well, so you keep hearing that word for judgment. Sometimes it has one preposition on the front, sometimes another, sometimes a little different ending. But the same word, at the heart of all these words is the word judgment, the Greek word meaning that. It's about judgment. He who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. A failure to judge and recognize the significance of these elements and what they portray means I partake. And in the partaking I am going to bring judgment on myself, God's judgment on me for failing to judge the body rightly. Serious matter. So we say, the Protestant view, or the Indian Hills view, or Bible-believing church's view of Communion is not so serious. It's very serious. Oh you mean you're like the Catholics? No, not at all. Like the Lutherans? No, not at all. Like Paul. I mean, this is serious business. And when you partake of those elements, if you haven't judged rightly, you will come under God's judgment.

Move on to the next statement. For this reason. Now, we're going to apply it to the Corinthians' situation personally. We've talked about what had happened, what does happen, but let's now get personal. "For this reason, for partaking in an unworthy manner and thus eating and drinking and bringing judgment on yourself." For this reason, many, he doesn't say how many, but he says many, paloi, many among you are weak and sick and a number sleep. Now weak and sick, both words that refer to illness, the first one does refer to the weakness that comes with illness. You know when you've been sick, you say, I just don't have any strength, I feel so weak. So a word that conveys sickness, but the weakness that comes with sickness, the second word, sickness, refers to sickness or illness.

The word sleep is a word that is used in the New Testament only of the death of believers. It doesn't talk about soul sleep, it's talking about the activity of the body, it ceases. So it looks like the body is asleep, it is being unused. Death occurs when a person leaves his body. James 2:26 says, "The body without the spirit is dead." To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, for a believer, and the body then is asleep, it's in a state of not being used, not functioning for a time. He's talking about what has happened among the members of the church at Corinth. And they hadn't put two and two together. Some of those believers were experiencing physical problems, physical illness, physical weakness. Some of them had died and they hadn't put it together. This is associated with the fact they had not been coming and partaking of the Lord's Table in a worthy manner, and they have brought the judgment of the Lord upon them.

They haven't seen the connection. Now we want to be careful here. Remember, you examine yourself and then you partake. You don't examine someone..........oh, now I know why so-and-so is sick. God never told you to examine them, He told you to examine yourself. Otherwise you become like Job's three friends. They were sure it was sin in Job's life and then God comes down on them with His crushing verdict that their evaluation was totally wrong. They are dealing with the most righteous man on the face of the earth, and he lost all his children because God determined He would do that for His purposes, which we'll look at in a moment. Job lost his health, it had nothing to do with being guilty of sin, and so on. So we want to be careful that we don't set ourselves up in examining others. We better be just as careful that we do careful examination. I'm not talking about endless scrutiny and the psychological way of examining ourselves. It's clear, you know what your attitude is toward other people in the body, you know what your thoughts are and treatment of them are. What a travesty that we would have people in the body that don't speak to one another, yet come and partake of the Lord's Table and think, I'm righteous. Do you think the Corinthians weren't thinking that? Of course they were. Do you think they didn't think they had reasons? And you see what happens, I elevate myself, my thinking above the Lord's thinking. Here the living God sent His Son to die on a cross and I think my thinking is more important than what He died to accomplish. He died to cleanse, and He died to bring me together in a relationship of oneness in His body, the church, reflected and manifested in the local church. Not a reason for ecumenical unity. He's talking about the church at Corinth, he's not talking about their relationship to the church at Philippi, the church at Jerusalem, or any other church. He's talking about their relationship within that local church. They didn't put two and two together. They just thought, we have a lot of sickness these days, a number of deaths. Well, examine yourself, be sure. This is how God deals with it, this is the chastening of the Lord. You say, I don't know that I want to partake of the Communion service if this is the kind of thing, maybe I'll arrange to be out of town when we have Communion. Well, that's not the answer, the answer is not to try to avoid God. You can't do that as His child. Like your children, and that's where he is going with the example. Their alternative is not to avoid you as their parent so they can avoid doing what they have to do, because they can't get away from you. They have to do what you say. They have not done what they should, so they think they'll go and hide in their room. It won't work, you know it won't work, they know it won't work. I still remember vividly, I did something I shouldn't do and ended up breaking the neighbor's window. What I hurried up and did was run home and hide under the bed. Lo and behold I heard the phone ringing. Oh, I knew what that was. Then I hear my name called. And you know you try to get a little further back under the bed. Didn't work. I don't know how my parents got so smart, but I couldn't hide.

So that's not an option. What's the option? Look at verse 31, "But if we judged ourselves rightly we would not be judged." We are to examine ourselves and exercise right judgment. We put ourselves to the test, examining ourselves in light of the Word of God. And I know how I am functioning with others in the body in light of the Word of God. And then if there are things that are not as they should be, I make the correction. So if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. The problem was, I avoid the self-examination, or if I do it I'm sure I'm right anyway. And it's their problem and not mine. And the well-to-do in Corinth could figure it was the poor people's problem anyway. Not my problem, I worked hard for what I have. And on and on. It doesn't matter, you're denying what Christ has accomplished. All these other things are superficial, because Christ died to cleanse us and make us one. That's why the beauty of the church is its unity in its diversity, different races, different social classes, different job levels, different whatever. But what makes you a unified church? The work of Christ and His redemption, that's what does it. So judge yourself rightly and you won't have the judgment of God. One of the options is not I'll avoid Communion. No, judge yourself rightly, put yourself to examination and then judge correctly. And if there are things that need to be changed, make the correction and move on.

Verse 32, "But when we are judged we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world." Here is what happens, and now you see we are talking about the discipline of God's people, those who are not to be condemned along with the world. Jesus Christ will be the judge of all men, John 5 tells us that God the Father has committed all judgment to God the Son. The judgment of unredeemed, unregenerate, unbelieving people will be a sentence to an eternal hell. Revelation 14 says the smoke of their torment goes up into the ages of the ages, because they have been consigned to eternal torment in the fires of hell. Awful concept. Described also in Revelation 20. But God disciplines His children so they will not be condemned along with the world. When we are judged, talking about the judgment of God that has brought in verse 30, weakness, sickness, even death. We are disciplined. And the heart of this word is the word pedia. And we're familiar with it in words like pedagogue and so on. It's the word for a child. And here you're talking about child training, and then it comes to mean training and discipline. But at the heart of it was the training process of a child, it then becomes representative of any training process. So we are disciplined by the Lord. So His judgment is not for our condemnation, His judgment is for our discipline to train us so that we will not experience eternal condemnation along with the world.

Turn over to Hebrews 12. Very important concept. You and I ought to rejoice in the discipline of the Lord, we ought to be thankful for the discipline of the Lord. It's not something we just endure and grumble through, it is something we are to be thankful for. Hebrews 12 starts by giving the example of Christ. Verse 2, we've had the example of believers through Old Testament history in chapter 11. Then in Hebrews 12:2, we fix our eyes on Christ, on Jesus, and He ultimately endured shame, suffering, death. And now He sat down at the right hand of the Father. Verse 3, "Consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart." So His suffering and enduring is an example for us as His followers. You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin. The Hebrew Christians were under such pressure that they were looking for ways to get away from suffering, instead of learning what God had for them in their suffering. You have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons. "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him. For those whom loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He received. It is for discipline that you endure." God deals with you as with sons, for what son is there whom his father does not discipline. But if you are without discipline of which all have become partakers, all of God's children, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Only two choices—you are either enduring the discipline of God, or you don't belong to God.

I sometimes wonder in my less rational moments, why the Lord lets such open, hostile sinners live such long, healthy lives. I was watching the news and one of those men who has had great influence with his immorality, celebrating his 80th birthday. And smiling and laughing, and the news commentators remarking he's had a street named after him, and lives in a mansion. I say, Lord, why do you let this sinner who so openly opposes you live to 80 in good health, and some of your faithful servants have struggled and endured physical hardship and many of them have died at young ages? It's not the way I would do it, Lord. Then He tells me to shut up and read what He said. That's not my child, I don't discipline him. There comes a time when I'm going to judge him, the judgment will be most awful. But I discipline my children. And you think you get a little into sin, you live in sin, you disobey the Lord but nothing happens. There may be good reason. When we were raising our kids we'd walk the mall and sometimes you'd see kids who needed a good disciplining, and you're tempted. But you don't. Why? They're not your children. And sometimes your children will remark, I know what would happen to me if I did that, right Dad? Right. Why? You're my child, they're not. I love you, I don't have that love for them. So that's what God says.

Verse 6, those whom the Lord loves He disciplines. And if you're without discipline of the Lord in your life, you don't belong to Him. Verse 9, furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us. We respected them. Shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful but sorrowful, yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness.

So in the church at Corinth, those experiencing the discipline of God, what were they to do? Complain, moan, think about what it would be like if they weren't sick. Stop. Examine yourself, see if there are things in my life that don't pass the test, that need to be dealt with. Deal with them. Perhaps that's not the cause of what is unpleasant, perhaps it's just the ongoing process like it was for Job. And you know what God wants us to do? It's for our good. He wants us to manifest His holiness so that we may share in His holiness. All that discipline refines me so that I can produce His righteous character in my life. That's necessary. God's not done with me. He saved me completely, but He's not finished now with maturing me, growing me to perfection. Discipline is part of that, and sometimes the discipline focuses on particular issues like it did for the church at Corinth. That discipline will be a general part of my life, but I want to examine myself and find out if it has a particular cause, and make the correction, make the adjustment. Under all of God's discipline I learn, even as Job did. There is no particular sin that is identified that God was disciplining him for. But Job grew and matured. And at the end of that experience he could tell God, I repent in sackcloth and ashes, I didn't understand, I didn't know. He had come to know, to grow, to mature in ways that he hadn't before. So that's the process.

Come back to I Corinthians 11. Now it's important where there is a particular cause of the discipline, correct the problem. So I want to examine my life to determine here. I may get sick and I want to say, I need to examine myself, Lord, are there things in my life that need to be altered, need to be changed? Am I passing the test? I want to examine myself, my attitude, my conduct carefully in light of the Word. Sometimes I say, Lord, I'm not nearly what I desire to be, but as far as I can tell there are no areas of overt sin in my life. Then I accept it as part of the process the Lord has for me. Not going to sit in a puddle. Lord, you are doing what is good, thank you for bringing this. I was reading about a man who is a well-known preacher, recently diagnosed with cancer. And he wrote a chapter in the book, I want to learn everything I need to learn from this cancer, part of what God has brought in my life for good. That's the attitude we must have, right? If I really believe what God says, He brought it for good. I want to learn from it, I want to grow through it, I want to be a more godly man as a result of it.

For the Corinthians there is a particular problem, and that's their conduct in association when they fellowship together in the Communion service. If they would correct that, their discipline would be lifted in this area, the weakness, the sickness, and even the death. So I Corinthians 11:33, Paul wraps this up in summary fashion. "So then, my brethren," a warm expression. I've spoken harshly, these have been stern rebukes, but I love you. We are part of the same family, my brethren. When you come together to eat. Remember we started out in verse 17 in giving this instruction," I do not praise you because you come together not for the better." Verse 18, in the first place when you come together as a church. Verse 20, therefore when you meet together. Now verse 33, when you come together. So this has been all about their assembling together as the church family at Corinth, that local church, their conduct at the Lord's Supper. When you assemble together to eat, and the context has made clear here as we'll see in a moment, he's talking about eating the Lord's Supper, partaking of the bread and the cup. Wait for one another. That word translated wait, that's a very accurate translation, but it can also mean to receive or to welcome. It seems in the context that's what he's talking about here. Receive one another, welcome one another. Any divisions ought to be nonexistent. That's a denial of what Christ died for. We have all by the work of the Spirit through faith in Christ been made part of the body of Christ. So there is no place for divisions and factions among us.

If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home. Now you'll note here he does not say, the rich ought to bring extra to the dinner so that everyone will have enough. Because this occasion is not about satisfying your physical hunger, for the rich or the poor. The place for satisfying your hunger, do it at home. And there may be responsibilities for believers to one another, those who have more and those who have less. But that's not what he's talking about here. He says if anyone is hungry, eat at home. That's not what this occasion is about. So that you will not come together for judgment. We need to be careful of turning these things that God has established for us as His church into occasions for other things. This is the time that we focus on the Lord, this is the time when we manifest what He has accomplished and done, and only He could do. It is a time when we demonstrate that with all of our differences, with all of the variation we have in spiritual growth and development, we are one people. We are more different than we are alike, humanly speaking. But we are one and to divide along these superficial lines is to make a mockery of the death of Christ. It hasn't done any more for you than joining a club someplace. No, I recognize. You may have far more riches than I have, but we are one in Christ. Isn't it wonderful? You may have far less than I have, but we are one in Christ. Isn't that wonderful what He has done for us? These other things are superficial and someday they'll be all done away with, but what He has done for us and to us and in us and is doing through us will endure for eternity. So eat at home and don't corrupt this service by making it another meal. It is a time to focus on Jesus Christ and what He has done.

The remaining matters I will arrange when I get there. This is not all he has to say, I have more on this subject. Remember he started out in verse 18 saying in the first place. Now he says I'll just deal with the rest of it when I come. Everything has to be done according to God's plan and God's purpose.

It's all about Jesus Christ and what He did on the cross. Is that the way we see? Stop and think now, I'm not going to examine you, you don't examine me, let's examine ourselves. How are we doing on our relationships in the body? Right here this local church and having to recognize one another for who we are in Christ. Is there anybody you're not getting along with? Anybody you don't really view as your spiritual equal? You sit there and it's easy to look down on them, be critical of them. What we really need to say, Lord, I look in amazement, the wonder of what your Son did, that they're saved, that I'm saved. If I don't have that attitude, I need to examine myself and where I come short. That's God's intention in this service, that we remember Him, that we proclaim Him, and that we demonstrate that in Him there is a supernatural work done that makes us one with God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, and one with those who are one in Him. May He give us the grace, and we draw upon that grace to manifest it as we assemble as His people.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that He has come and died so that He might totally change those who come to believe in Him, that they may be made new creatures. Old things have passed away, behold new things have come. We don't look at one another according to our social standing, according to what we possess or don't possess, how much we have or don't have, how influential we are in the world or how insignificant, what our race is, what our language is. Lord, we look at one another through what you have done for us in the death of your Son. Lord, may that be true of us as we assemble together as your people, we assemble together as the local church in this place. We are privileged to be reminded of the death of Christ and we partake of those elements when we proclaim His death, when we demonstrate the oneness we have as the body of Christ in this place. May we examine ourselves carefully and exercise the necessary judgment on ourselves. And Lord we do thank you for your discipline. No discipline for the time is pleasant, but Lord we rejoice that you love us and you discipline us so that we can be partakers of your holiness and manifest the beauty of your righteousness. We pray in Christ's name, amen.