Come Together, Right Now (1 Corinthians 11:33-34)

A common meme on the internet goes something like this: “This may come as a shock to you, but let me let you in on a little secret: Everything isn’t about you!”

As we close-out the apostle Paul’s teaching on the Lord’s Supper, those words seem somewhat appropriate.

Here’s what I mean. Our normal approach to celebrating communion is to emphasize self-examination. We are almost always encouraged to look within, and to reflect on our personal relationship with Jesus.

We’re Protestants, and we don’t believe Jesus is mystically present in the elements; but we can act as if He is in our introspection.

Now I’m not saying we can’t or shouldn’t reflect upon our hearts at the Lord’s Supper. But Paul’s emphasis throughout his teaching on communion has been corporate, not individual. He has been concerned with our attitude toward others.

He described communion as an activity that proclaims we are the corporate body of Jesus.
He spoke of the elements as proclaiming the Lord’s death to onlookers, as a public testimony, not as a private devotion.

In fact the problem that the believers in Corinth were experiencing at the Lord’s Supper was due to them thinking too much about themselves, and not enough about others.

We might summarize what we’re getting at by saying, “Communion isn’t about you.”

The two verses that end chapter eleven focus your attention one last time on the others at the table.

1Co 11:33  Therefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another.

“Brethren” “come together.” Nothing is more supernaturally natural than for believers to meet together.

At first, it is mostly about you that you meet together. You need to get grounded in God’s Word. You need the encouragement of other believers.

As an example, think of the Day of Pentecost. Thousands of Jews were saved responding to Peter’s preaching. They had traveled to Jerusalem as pilgrims to attend the feast. Once saved, they desired to stay, in order to learn about Jesus from those disciples of His who had been with Him. Local believers therefore opened up their homes to lodge these pilgrims.

There can come a point when a believer thinks that he or she might not require meeting together – at least, not so often. After all, I’m a Christian; I’ve been reading the Word for some time; my attending meetings of the church doesn’t seem as necessary for me.

You’re not backslidden… You’re not apathetic… You’re just not as enthusiastic as you once were.

It’s a dangerous place for a lot of reasons. But let’s stick with our context.

Isn’t it necessary to gather together for others? When you needed them, mature believers were there to minister to you. If you’re mature and grounded, you are needed to minister to those who are not.

“Church isn’t about you!” It’s about Jesus, and about you ministering to others.

(Now the truth is, you still need ministry, too; but I think you understand what I’m saying).

The “eating” Paul talks about was not the communion elements, but rather the self-indulging that the wealthier believers were doing at the meal preceding communion. Instead of choking-it down, they were to “wait for one another.”

Whether it’s eating at the pot-luck, or being seated in church, or anything really, we should “wait” for others. We should prefer others, and give-up our food or our place for them – especially if we know they are needy.

Another way we can “wait” is by being either on-time or early if we are given a task to perform. Or by pitching-in to help even when it’s not our responsibility.

This isn’t what the word “wait” means, but I think it’s applicable to say I should slow down, look around, to see if there is someone I can minister to.

Do you know everyone you see on a Sunday morning? Wait for one another by introducing yourself. It isn’t the job of the Greeters.

In fact, we ought to be trying to put the Greeter’s Ministry out-of-business.

(Don’t worry; we’re not going to do that. But that’s the idea. In one sense we shouldn’t need designated Greeters since we are all to greet one another).

1Co 11:34  But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest you come together for judgment. And the rest I will set in order when I come.

I think by using the word “hungry” Paul was emphasizing that the pot-luck preceding communion (which historically has been called the Love Feast) was not an integral part of the celebration. Rather than risk abusing the pot-luck, come without an appetite by eating at home.

Again we note that this is teaching that what happens at the table is not about you. Your needs in terms of food are subordinate to those of others.

Eventually someone has to go first… If it is you, be cognizant of those coming behind you. Take realistic portions, to insure those behind you have something.

“Lest you come together for judgment” reminds us that, in Corinth, some were weak, and some were sick, and some were dying, because of their atrocious behavior indulging themselves to the detriment of others.

“And the rest I will set in order when I come.” Bummer. What nuggets of practical and spiritual truth are captured by that promise? What else would Paul have said about the Lord’s Supper and its celebration? What are we missing?

Well, in one sense, we’re not missing a thing. We understand that the revelation we have been given in God’s Word is all we require for life and for godliness. Still, it would have been great for Paul to put them in writing for us.

On the plus side, it reminds us of something we emphasized at the beginning of this series on the Lord’s Supper. We have been given a freedom in how we celebrate it, and as to how often. All churches, throughout all of history, and in every geography, have the framework in the Bible, e.g., Paul’s teaching here.

We are free within guidelines to experience the Lord’s Supper in our own way – so long as it is honoring to the Lord.

The more of Paul’s teaching we had, the more we’d be confined to his framework.

It’s hard to enjoy our freedom. We’d almost rather be told what to do, when it comes to church stuff. But then our worship would grow mechanical, not remain alive.

Be thankful for our freedom in Jesus. Let us come together, right now, as members of a body, to proclaim the Lord’s death til He comes.

Dead Like Me (1 Corinthians 11:26)

A Missing Man formation is incredibly emotional. It’s an aerial salute performed as part of a flyby of aircraft at a funeral or memorial event, typically in memory of a fallen pilot, a well-known military service member or veteran, or a well-known political figure.

I’ve been to a number of Law Enforcement funerals. Too many. They usually feature a heart wrenching End of Watch ceremony. Dispatch calls to the deceased officer over the radio, as if to contact him. After two calls, Dispatch acknowledges that the officer is not responding. Dispatch then announces that the officer has ended his watch.

I got to thinking about those public displays because of the apostle Paul’s emphasis on the public display of “death” when describing the Lord’s Supper:

1Co 11:26  For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.

It’s more obvious that “death” is prominent in the original word order of the Greek: “The death of the Lord you proclaim until He comes” is the more literal translation.

Jesus also emphasized His death when He first gave us these symbols. He spoke of the bread as His body, to be given for us; and of the wine as His blood, to be shed for us.

Without being irreverent, the Lord’s Supper is both a Missing Man formation and an End of Watch declaration.

Jesus was born to die. His mission was to go to the Cross. It wasn’t an afterthought, or a mistake. It was necessary in order for mankind to be reconciled to God. On the Cross, as the lamb of God taking away the sin of the world, Jesus Himself said, “It is finished!” End of Watch.

Jesus let us know that after He died, He would be a missing man:

Joh 14:1  “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.
Joh 14:2  In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
Joh 14:3  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.
Joh 14:4  And where I go you know, and the way you know.”

The huge difference, of course, is that Jesus is returning:

First He’s coming to resurrect and rapture the church He is missing from.
Second He’s returning to establish a new “watch,” the Kingdom of God on the earth.

That, too, is anticipated in the way Paul describes the Lord’s Supper, when he added “till He comes.”
The Lord’s Supper, at least in part, is a public proclamation of the Lord’s death and of His two returns.

We may use it as a time of introspection and prayer; nothing wrong with that. But it is also a very public proclamation.

This word, “proclaim,” as it’s used here, can mean that a proclamation should accompany the Lord’s Supper. In other words, there should always be a teaching, or some instruction, when communion is served.

More likely Paul had in mind the other way that this word “proclaim” can be used. It can mean that the Supper itself proclaims things, in its symbolism.

It is, in fact, meant to communicate without words the death and the returns of Jesus; and therefore how we ought to live in-between.

Think of it this way. Let’s say a nonbeliever having no previous church experience came to church for the first time ever. At that service, they were exposed to Jesus’ simple explanation of the elements, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me,” and, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”

Wouldn’t the nonbeliever understand the ceremony as proclaiming the Lord’s death?

An astute observer might grasp that in taking the elements, you were also identifying with Jesus in His death. You were, in fact, dying with Him.
But in dying with Him, you remain alive, to serve Him, until His return for you.

The nonbeliever might see in symbol what Paul states so clearly in Galatians 2:20,

Gal 2:20  I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

It should come as no surprise that Paul emphasized the Lord’s death at the Lord’s Supper. He emphasized it the entire time he was in Corinth. He told the Corinthians,

1Co 2:2  For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

Paul taught a lot more than the crucifixion. In chapter fifteen, for example, he presents the Gospel, and gives a masterful apologetic for the resurrection. He describes the rapture, too.

His main emphasis, however, in Corinth, his theme, was the death of Jesus, and applying it to the believers.

Applying this “Christ and Him crucified” theme to communion, “the death of the Lord” reminds us we are crucified with Him.

It reminds us we are to daily bear the Cross. It is a strong picture of dying to self.

Paul said we are to “always [carry] about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body” (Second Corinthians 4:10).

William MacDonald commented on this, saying, “The life of the servant of God is one of constant dying.”

This is immensely practical. Any of the difficult situations occurring in Corinth could have been resolved by living as though crucified.

For example, the believers were suing one another in open court:

A crucified man doesn’t answer wrongs against him with litigation. Being dead to self means I can forsake my rights when I’m wronged in order to not bring reproach upon the name of Jesus.
A crucified man doesn’t wrong others. He doesn’t treat them in ways that would incite them to want to take him to court. Instead he thinks more highly of them than he does of himself.

Do you recall the problem in Corinth at communion? The believers came together every Sunday night for a service in which they celebrated the Lord’s Supper. Prior to it, the believers shared a pot-luck, called the Love Feast. At the pre-communion meal, the wealthy were hoarding food and drink, not sharing it with the disadvantaged members of the body.

If the believers in Corinth had been emphasizing the Lord’s death, and dying to self, there would have been no problems with the wealthy among them hoarding food at the Love Feast. They would have been practicing crucifixion by sharing rather than hoarding.

It involves more than just how Christians behave at pot-lucks. It gets us back to basics. Back to Jesus’ own emphasis on the Cross – that we pick it up daily, until He returns for us.

And that is exactly what Paul said: “you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.”

You live a crucified, dead-to-self life, until the Lord comes for you individually in death; or for us corporately in the rapture.

“Till He comes” focuses our attention on the imminence of Jesus’ return for us. It is our motivation to daily die to self serving Him.

Could Jesus really return at any moment? James thought so when he wrote, “Be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the Judge is standing at the door! (James 5:7–9).

When the apostle Paul described the Lord’s coming for the church, he used personal pronouns that show he was convinced he himself might be among those who would be caught up alive to meet the Lord:

“We who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord . . . we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (First Thessalonians 4:15, 17).

Another (biblical) proof for the imminence of the rapture is what Paul called “the fullness of the Gentiles.”

Rom 11:25  For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

At the end of the Book of Acts, Paul declared, “Therefore let it be known to you that the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will hear it!” (28:28). Since then, the Gospel has gone out, and though Jews also are saved, mostly Gentiles are getting saved.

We know God is not done dealing with Jews as a nation. He will do that again in the seven-year Great Tribulation. Prior to that, Jesus will remove His church.

The fullness of the Gentiles refers to the full number of people who will be saved that constitute the church. Once the last person of the church age is saved, we will be raptured.

It’s therefore not a date we can discover; it can happen at any time.

Some would argue that the fullness of the Gentiles obviously could not have occurred in the first century, or any time long ago; therefore it says nothing about imminence.

I say that is an argument from hindsight. I agree – I don’t see how the fullness of the Gentiles could have occurred in the distant past. But that doesn’t mean it couldn’t have. It doesn’t mean God didn’t have a way of fulfilling it.

Knowing the Lord could return at any moment encourages me to the kind of die-to-self behavior worthy of a disciple of Jesus Christ. I want to be occupying when He comes, busy with His work, doing His will.

When Is Supper? (1 Corinthians 11:26)

Churches celebrate the Lord’s Supper with different frequency:

Catholic and high Anglican churches tend to celebrate it daily.

Many Protestant churches offer it once a month.

Some churches have communion quarterly or annually.

A 2013 survey revealed that a majority of evangelical churches celebrated the Lord’s Supper once a month.

Weekly communion is coming back as a standard in many churches. If you search the internet for, “How often should a church take communion,” the majority of the articles favor “weekly.” They offer compelling arguments for the practice.

Others put an even greater importance on it, demanding we celebrate the Supper at every meeting of Christians. One pastor went so far as to say, “It is quite possible that we have not worshipped as the church without celebrating the Lord’s Supper.”

Should we therefore observe the Lord’s Supper at every meeting, or at least weekly?

I think the best way to begin is with the conclusion. I’m going to quote a strong, scholarly proponent of weekly communion. He says, “I am an avid proponent of weekly communion for our churches. [However] this practice is not directly commanded in Scripture, so I am not accusing others of sin. The issue is the pursuit of “best practice,” what best fits the patterns found in Scripture and makes best use of the resources God has given us.”

He goes on to argue, mostly from the pattern found in the Book of Acts, that the early church observed the Lord’s Supper weekly, and did so on into at least the fourth century.

That’s true; I don’t dispute it. The point, however, is this: Do we have any precedent in the Bible for exercising freedom in the frequency of our observing the Lord’s Supper – or must we follow the at-least-weekly tradition of the early church?

If the early church is your standard, you can argue that they originally observed the Lord’s Supper daily. In Acts 2:42 we read,

Act 2:42  And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.

This seems to be describing a meeting of the church. When the church met, they did these four things.

The phrase, “the breaking of bread,” seems to indicate communion – not just a regular meal.

How often did such gatherings occur? We’re told a few verses later:
Act 2:46  So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart,

I think you could make a solid argument that the “best practice,” the pattern, originally, was daily a daily gathering of Christians at which communion was celebrated.

You’d have to at the very least say that it was celebrated at every meeting.

Most evangelicals who are rethinking the issue of frequency are not arguing we do it at every meeting; just weekly. They base it on what we are told later in the Book of Acts:

Act 20:7  Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight.

This does establish that there was a regular pattern of meeting weekly, on Sunday. At that weekly meeting, on the first day of the week – on Sunday – they broke bread, i.e., they celebrated the Lord’s Supper.

It does not answer whether or not the Lord’s Supper was celebrated at other meetings of the church.

Truth is, if you are going to use the first century church as your standard, there is another requirement you’re going to have to implement. It’s clear from the Bible, and church history as I’ve been taught it, that they observed communion in the evening, as a supper.

For example, that key passage in Acts twenty goes on to talk about the apostle Paul teaching past midnight. It was the meeting during which young Eutychus grew drowsy, and fell asleep – and fell to his death from the window sill he’d been dozing in. Paul paused from his teaching to raise the young man from the dead.

The meeting started in the evening and went through the night, to the next morning. It was a Sunday night church gathering, and that is when the Lord’s Supper was observed.

It’s my understanding that churches like the one in Corinth met on Sunday evening, since most of the membership was servants or slaves, and that would be the only time they were free to attend a meeting.

Maybe it’s just me, but I think it is inconsistent to say that the first century church met weekly and celebrated communion as a supper, and then argue we must therefore celebrate it weekly, but can do so at breakfast time or lunch time.

If the day is so important, why isn’t the time of day equally important?

The very name, the Lord’s Supper, argues for it not being celebrated earlier in the day.

Also, remember that Jesus instituted it in the evening, after supper.

Should we therefore be celebrating the Lord’s Supper at every meeting of the church?

The one thing we are told in the Bible, directly, about the frequency of celebrating the Lord’s Supper is in First Corinthians 11:26, where we read,

1Co 11:26  For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.

What does “as often as” mean? Commenting on this verse, Gordon Fee notes, “This addition in particular implies a frequently repeated action, suggesting that from the beginning the Last Supper was for Christians not an annual Christian Passover, but a regularly repeated meal in ‘honor of the Lord,’ hence the Lord’s Supper.”

But how regularly? Fee goes on to say that observing the Lord’s supper is a “primary” New Testament truth, but the frequency of the rite “is based upon tradition and precedent” and those “surely are not binding.”

Fee says, from his study of the language, we are not bound to the traditions of the early church in the matter of frequency.

Somewhere between celebrating it annually and daily is where we want to be as far as frequency. We have the freedom to determine the Lord’s leading for our church.

If there is a pattern to discover in the Book of Acts, it’s every meeting. Any church not celebrating the Lord’s Supper at every meeting is exercising freedom to serve it “as often as” they choose. Bear that in mind when someone tells you that weekly communion is essential to worship.

Truth is, we are observing the Lord’s Supper weekly, in the evening, but we’re doing it Wednesday instead of Sunday.

For a while, we had the elements set-up on Sunday mornings, in the Prayer Room upstairs, for anyone who wanted to partake.

We had every meeting covered.

The Lord’s Supper is essential. But so is our freedom in Jesus Christ, to not be put under man-made traditions, thinking they make us more spiritual.

I say that cautiously, since the traditions established by the apostles are important. But what I see here, in studying the Word, is that we have freedom from any set tradition.

We emphasize communion monthly, on the last Wednesday of the month; we offer the elements every Wednesday, for those who wish to partake.

Divided We Feast (1 Corinthians 11:17-19)

I ran across the following article on the blog of a respected evangelical leader: TOP TEN WAYS CHURCHES DRIVE AWAY FIRST-TIME GUESTS.

#10 – Dirty facilities
#9 – Members telling visitors they were in their seat.
#8 – Boring sermon or service.
#7 – Insider church language.
#6 – Bad signage.
#5 – Bad church website.
#4 – No place to get information.
#3 – Unsafe and unclean children’s area.
#2 – Unfriendly church members.

You’ll never guess the #1 reason.  It was standing-up to have a Meet & Greet during the service.  It made the visitors polled feel “uncomfortable.”

With the exception of the unclean and unsafe kids area, none of those things is really of any significance.  Certainly, they are not of any spiritual significance.

If you were a visitor in the first century church that had services in Corinth, you’d have some genuine complaints.

For one thing, because of their emphasis on everyone speaking in tongues at once, visitors were concluding they were crazy:

1Co 14:23  Therefore if the whole church comes together in one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those who are uninformed or unbelievers, will they not say that you are out of your mind?

Even more serious, if you attended their weekly communion service, you’d experience the rich shaming the poor, and believers getting drunk before partaking of the elements:

1Co 11:20  Therefore when you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper.
1Co 11:21  For in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others; and one is hungry and another is drunk.

Their behaviors at the Lord’s Supper are going to provide context for the apostle Paul to give the clearest teaching on communion anywhere in the New Testament.

We’ll take it a piece at a time on the Wednesday’s we set-up communion.

1Co 11:17  Now in giving these instructions I do not praise you, since you come together not for the better but for the worse.
1Co 11:18  For first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it.
1Co 11:19  For there must also be factions among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you.

Back at the beginning of this chapter, in verse two, Paul said, “Now I praise you.”  Verse seventeen begins a new section entirely, when he says, “Now… I do not praise you.”

If you peruse these verses, three things emerge: They were (1) assembling together,  (2) to eat, but there were (3) divisions among them.

We’re going to see that Paul’s criticism involves their behavior at the common meal that was eaten prior to communion.

Each week, on Sunday evening, they came together to eat a common meal.  We would call it a pot-luck, as each family or member who had the means, brought food for the meal.

But instead of being “together,” some were separating from others by partaking of their own food while ignoring the needs of others – thereby fostering a division based on social status.

Their “coming together” is repeated about five times in this entire section, that goes to verse thirty-four.  It is a technical term for the meetings of the church.

The Corinthians had no problem “coming together.”  They had lots of services; they were an active fellowship.

Paul’s focus is on how they were behaving when they came together.

The rich, or at least those who had more, were separating from the poor, those who had less.  They brought their food and either ate it before the poor arrived, or they ate it separately, in the presence of the poor, without sharing.

Do you see the real problem?  It wasn’t gluttony, or drunkenness.

The taking of communion is a declaration we are one body – the body of Jesus Christ.  It declares the great spiritual truth that the wall of separation between Jew and Gentile has been torn down.

It symbolizes that, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).

Tonight we might say, “There is neither officer nor enlisted man.”  That is, in the fellowship of the church those designations cease to matter, because we are all one – all equal – in the Lord.

It doesn’t mean we don’t have roles.  Men and women, for example, are given different roles, in the Bible, for the proper functioning of the church and the home.

Within our roles, we are equals.  Equally loved by God.

The behavior of the well-to-do at the pot-luck was far more serious than they thought.  It denied exactly what they were coming together to declare.  It denied they were the church – a new organism that was one in Jesus Christ.

A visitor saw separation, at least economically and socially, where there ought to be unity.
That’s what Paul means when he says they “come together, not for the better, but for the worse.”  It was a gathering that did more harm than good, because their behavior was the opposite of what it should have been.

1Co 11:18  For first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it.

Paul wrote from Ephesus, where information about the church at Corinth had reached him.  “In part I believe it” might indicate a reluctance to believe it; it is so paraphrased by some scholars.

I like that; let’s go with that.

We should be reluctant to believe negative reports about Christians, and about churches.  Sadly, there is always a lot of negative to report – because the church is made up of people, all of whom are flawed.

On a recent Sunday morning I went through a list of most of the New Testament churches and showed you the areas needing correction in each of them.

Paul had already dealt with “divisions” earlier in this letter.  For example, they were dividing over which Bible teacher they followed.

He must mean something different here, and I’m suggesting it’s this fact that they were failing to be God’s new, unified people when they gathered for the meal leading-up to communion.

1Co 11:19  For there must also be factions among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you.

The word translated “factions” might be heresies in your Bible.  It’s accurate, but carries a different connotation for us.  We think of some teaching error, but that is not what is meant here.

“Factions” is another way of saying “divisions.”  It’s a little more specific, because they were dividing according to socio-economic groups, or factions.

It was officers with officers; enlisted men with enlisted men – to use our example.

Gordon Fee says of this verse, “This sentence is one of the true puzzles in the letter.  How can he who earlier in the letter argued so strongly against divisions now confirm a kind of divine necessity to divisions?”

There is nothing in Paul’s words that would indicate their division was a good thing.  It’s a “must” given that we are all flawed, in our bodies of flesh, prone to yielding to our carnal impulses rather than to God the Holy Spirit.

The apostle Peter had a problem with this, as a mature believer, long into his walk with the Lord.  In his letter to the Galatians, Paul described having to rebuke Peter for separating from Gentiles at meals, and eating only among fellow Messianic Jews:

Gal 2:11  Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed;
Gal 2:12  for before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision.
Gal 2:13  And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy.
Gal 2:14  But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, “If you, being a Jew, live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews?

Factions happen; and, when they do, “those who are approved may be recognized among you.”

Could Paul be talking about nonbelievers being outed by their lack of truly spiritual behavior?  That is one possibility.

But believers act like this, too; and that is who Paul was addressing in this section.

Selfishness, and self-centeredness, is not always easy to identify.  When certain factions occur, you’re able to see, in yourself but also in others, selfishness on display.

Let’s be honest: Sometimes we prefer the rich, or at least the well-off, over the poor.  Churches and Christian organizations are notorious for promoting the well-off as leaders.

At least, we defer to them.

I’ll go out on a limb and say that probably no church or parachurch organization in Hanford has a homeless Christian on their Board.  We don’t, BTW!!
Is well-to-do-ness really more spiritual?

Back to the context: Our behavior is the indicator of what we truly believe.  If I separate myself socially, or racially, or economically, from other Christians, then I do not believe the doctrine of the church, no matter what I might think or say.

I deny that I am one with Jesus, a member of His unified body on the earth.

As we proceed, we’ll see that it wasn’t gluttony, or drunkenness that Paul saw as the real problem.  Those things are wrong.

The real problem, the taking of communion in an unworthy manner, has to do with the beauty, and the wonder, of the church on earth as an absolutely unique organism.

People should come to our gatherings and be blown-away by our unity, as we treat each other as equals.

Eat, Drink & Be Married (1 Corinthians 11:23-26)

Have you noticed that screen writers like to poke fun at the snobbery of the wine industry?

In Sleepless in Seattle, Meg Ryan’s boyfriend tries to impress her in a restaurant by ordering a bottle of Dom DeLuise.

My favorite wine-snob is in The Muppet Movie (1979).  Steve Martin, playing the sommelier to Kermit and Miss Piggy, brings a sparkling muscatel, calling it “one of the finest from Idaho,” and asks if Kermit would like to “sniff the bottle cap.”  After pouring, he produces two straws for their glasses.

You’ve seen movies and television shows where someone breaks-out a valuable bottle of wine that they’ve been waiting for the perfect occasion to open and share.

Not too long ago, a single bottle of 1947 Chevalier Blanc sold at a Christies auction for over $300,000.00.

The most expensive bottle of wine ever sold was not even a decade old at the time of purchase.  A six liter 1992 Screaming Eagle Cabernet Sauvignon sold for a whopping half a million dollars in the year 2000 at a Napa Valley charity auction.

What if I told you that there is a wine so rare, so vintage, that no price could possibly be put on it?

While it is beyond precious, surprisingly there is an abundant quantity of it being reserved until the day it will be uncorked and poured freely to multiplied millions of people.

It is the wine Jesus spoke about at the Last Supper when He took the cup and said,

Mat 26:26. … “Drink from it, all of you.
Mat 26:28  For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
Mat 26:29  But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.”

A “new” wine will be poured into our cups to overflowing in the “Kingdom.”

The Kingdom is not here; not yet.  It is coming, in the future.

Mean time, we are to “drink” in its anticipation as we share in what we’ve come to call the Lord’s Supper, or Communion.

We’re going to share Communion today; the service is dedicated to it.  Leading up to it, I want to explore a few things about the drinking we do now, with Jesus physically absent; and the drinking we will do then, present with the Lord.

I’ll organize my thoughts around two points: #1 In His Absence, You Drink In Remembrance, and #2 In His Presence, You Will Drink To Rejoicing.

#1    In His Absence, You Drink In Remembrance

I’ve concentrated on drinking, but Communion involves eating as well.  Just before Jesus told His disciples to “drink,” we read,

Mat 26:26  And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.”
Mat 26:27  Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you.
Mat 26:28  For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

The fledgling church immediately took Jesus’ words to heart.  In the Book of Acts, we see the believers gathering daily, and one of their activities was “breaking bread.”  An argument can be made that the term refers to the sharing of bread and wine in Communion on a daily basis.

As the church grew, they began sharing Communion on a weekly basis, on the first day of the week; on Sunday.

You may not have heard of a document called the Didache.  It is also called, The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles.  It caused a sensation when it was discovered around 1885.

Lost for over a thousand years, this anonymous Greek writing appears to have taken its final form around 125AD in Alexandria Egypt, but is composed of two earlier documents that could date back to the time of the apostles themselves.

It is a sort of guide book, a how-to manual, for ministry to the saints.  In it the statement is made that Christians “come together each Lord’s day of the Lord, break bread, and give thanks” (7:14).

The early church shared Communion weekly.  Is it therefore incumbent upon us to share communion every Sunday?

Before you answer, there are two other things you need to hear regarding the early church.

Communion was shared on Sunday evenings.  It was impractical for the church to gather on Sunday mornings, because so many of the believers were servants or slaves, and they only had free time Sunday evenings to come together.

Besides, think about it: it’s the Lord’s Supper, and supper isn’t breakfast or brunch.

Speaking of which, both First Corinthians and the Didache establish that communion was shared after a regular evening meal was eaten together.  The meal was a pot-luck called the Agape Feast; or we would say, the Love Feast.

So: Should we share Communion weekly, every Sunday?  If the answer is “Yes,” because that is what the early church did, then shouldn’t we also do it in the evenings, after a meal – as they did?

You already know that the answer is “No,” but we want to arrive at it biblically.

It may surprise you to realize that the earliest teaching about Communion is not in the Gospels.  The apostle Paul wrote First Corinthians prior to any of the Gospels being written.  In it he presents an order of service for Communion.

The believers in Corinth met every Sunday night.  They had a pot luck, the Love Feast.  Afterward, they shared Communion.

Trouble was, there was tremendous division in the church.  The believers were arguing and fighting; they formed factions around their favorite teachers; some were even suing their brothers in open court.  This division was punctuated by the fact that, at the Love Feast, folks kept to themselves.  They ate the food they brought, not sharing it with others – who were, in some cases, more needy.

Some of them were getting drunk during the Love Feast, then participating in Communion inebriated.

Paul wrote to rebuke this behavior, comparing their division to that of Judas’ betrayal at the Last Supper.  He even said that one reason some of the believers in Corinth were suddenly and mysteriously getting sick and even dying was that the Lord was disciplining them for their sin.

Paul urged them to get it together.

In the midst of this rebuke, Paul also shared a few timeless truths about Communion.  He said,

1Co 11:23  For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread;
1Co 11:24  and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”
1Co 11:25  In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”

Before any Gospel was written, Paul “received from the Lord,” directly, insight into believers gathering together to share Communion.

He reviewed what Jesus did after the Passover meal was finished.  Jesus took the bread, first of all, and gave thanks for it. Since the bread was typical of His body, He was, in effect, thanking God that He had been given a human body in which He might come and die for the sins of the world.

You may have heard Communion referred to as the Eucharist.  It comes from this word for giving thanks.

In connection with the cup, He said that it was “the new covenant in [His] blood.”  The New Covenant (or New Testament) is the promise that God makes with humanity that He will forgive sin and restore fellowship with those whose hearts are turned toward Him.  He will come and dwell within them by His Holy Spirit.

Jesus was using figurative language.  The bread represented His body; the contents of the cup represented His blood.  The eleven disciples partook of both in anticipation of the Cross.

Paul’s practical application is in verse twenty-six; its his ‘how-to & why.’

1Co 11:26  For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.

The “you” he was addressing is every Christian.  Throughout the church age, we are to “eat this bread and drink this cup,” proclaiming the Lord’s sacrificial, substitutionary death, “until He comes.”

As incredibly important as Communion is to the church, as one of only two ordinances Jesus left us to observe, this is the extent of Paul’s order of service.

There is no mention of how to serve Communion, or who may or may not serve it; or if it is served by a third party at all.
There is no mention of the proper type of bread or the specific contents of the cup.

He does say something I find liberating.  He says, “for as often.”  The church in Corinth was sharing Communion weekly, and it seems that was a custom the early churches adopted.

But Paul was careful to not say, “every Sunday evening when you share Communion.”  “For as often” is a word of freedom.

I say that kind of freedom extends to the order of service, and even, to a certain extent, to the elements.

For example, there is huge disagreement on whether or not fermented wine must be in the cup, or if regular grape juice is an acceptable element.

Jesus certainly drank fermented wine; and wine was most likely in the first Communion cup.

Just when you thought you’d decided, however, you read this, from Dr. J. Vernon McGee:

Have you noticed that it is called the cup?  (It is also called the fruit of the vine in some instances, but it is never called wine)… “Should we have fermented or unfermented wine for the Lord’s Supper?”  That is baby talk to ask questions like that.  My friend, we can know it was unfermented.  This is Passover, the time of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  Do you think that they had unleavened bread and leavened grape juice (wine is leavened grape juice)? The whole business was unleavened – it had to be at the Passover feast.

There are rabbis, ancient and modern, who agree with Dr. McGee; there are rabbis who disagree, claiming that the leavening process of grapes is very different from the leavening of bread.

There is also disagreement, among experts and rabbis, as to whether or not the wine served at the Passover meal was diluted; and, if it was, to what extent.

And I think I’ve told you that in my research I’ve found wine experts who say the most prevalent wine in Jesus’ day was a white wine, not a red one.

You know what?  “For as often” establishes that it doesn’t matter if we serve wine or grape juice.  It lets us know that the emphasis throughout is not on the elements; it is on what they represent.

Occasionally someone who doesn’t know me will be in my office, and they’ll see pictures of Pam and the kids.  They’ll ask, “Is that your wife?”

I say, “Yes,” but it really isn’t Pam; it is a picture of Pam.  It represents Pam.

The elements in Communion aren’t Jesus; they are a figure of Jesus.  They represent Jesus.

All this arguing about the elements, and the order of service, turns Communion into a ritual, rather than a joyous encounter with the risen Lord.  It takes the attention off of Jesus, and puts it on physical things.

I mentioned the Didache.  Interestingly, the order of service suggested in the Didache differs from the one Paul suggested – putting emphasis on the cup before the bread.

It tells me that the earliest believers understood their freedom in Jesus.  We should, too.

Communion “proclaim[s] the Lord’s death.”  The word “death” encompasses more than just Jesus’ six-hours on the Cross.  Since it was His mission to die, His “death” encompasses His entire life and ministry.

The bread and the cup take us back to the announcement of His birth.

The bread and the cup take us back to His sinless life.

The bread and the cup take us back to His three-and-one-half years of ministry.

The bread and the cup take us back to the Cross, where Jesus exclaimed, “It is finished!”

They take us to the third day, to the empty tomb.

They take us forty days later, to the ascension of Jesus into Heaven.

They take us to Heaven, where Jesus is interceding in prayer for us at God’s right hand; and where He is working to perfect us day-by-day.

The elements take me, and they take you, back to getting saved, and to all that the Lord has done thus far to conform you into His image.

When we share the elements, remember the Lord; and remember His salvation, won for you by His substitutionary sacrifice on the Cross.

#2    In His Presence, You Will Drink To Rejoicing

Most of you have a vacation destination that you absolutely look forward to.  For us, it’s Disneyland.  With or without the grandkids, we cant wait to get back.

I know the food is expensive, but that’s alright, because it somehow tastes better there.  I’ll pay $6.95 all day for a corn dog from the cart on Main Street.

There are a few unique food items – things you can only or mostly get at Disneyland.  The Dole Whip at the Tiki Bar outside the Enchanted Tiki Room is to die for.

Jesus said to us, “But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.”

It’s not the Magic Kingdom; it’s our Father’s kingdom.  It is the ultimate earth-destination, better than any vacation spot.  It will be established by Jesus when He returns in His Second Coming.
The Kingdom is predicted all over the Old Testament:

It is when swords will be beaten into plows.

It is when children can put their hands in the burrows of poisonous snakes.

It is when streams will break out in the desert.

It is when lions and lambs will enjoy each other’s company.

AND it will feature a unique, precious “fruit of the vine” – a beverage Jesus has been away preparing for that great and glorious age.

The apostle Paul included this future Kingdom, and it’s beverage, as an important part of sharing Communion.  He said, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.”

People sometime have drinks named after them.  In the recent film, Sully, about the hero-pilot who made a successful water landing in the Hudson River after a flock of birds destroyed the engines after takeoff, a bartender invents a drink and calls it a Sully.  It consists of Grey Goose “with a splash of water.”

In Tolkien’s stories, the tree-like race known as the Ents had a signature beverage.  It was Ent-draught, made from river-water and possibly some other additives.  When the two young hobbits, Merry and Pippen, drank it, they grew several inches taller.

Jesus has an epic signature drink.  I can only imagine what the Creator of the universe will concoct in that cup for those He loves.

Can we not already rejoice at its future refreshment?

For starters, if I’m going to be drinking it, it means I’ve either been resurrected from the dead, or I’ve been raptured.  Either way, I will be alive forever in a new, eternal body that is not subject to aging or pain or illness or accident.

If I’m drinking it, I will never again experience the slightest sorrow.  There will be no more tears – not ever.

If I’m drinking it, I am with Jesus; and I will be with Him, forever and ever.  I will see His glory, brighter than the sun in its strength.

If I’m drinking it, I’ll be in my new home, in the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem.  I’ll be surrounded by the saints of all ages.  We will know each other, perfectly.  There can be no division, no strife, no contention – not the slightest misunderstanding.

Jesus depicts His Second Coming as beginning with a wedding banquet, in which He is Bridegroom, and we – the church – are bride.

If I’m drinking Jesus’ signature beverage, I am experiencing His perfect love; and I love Him perfectly.  The good work He has begun in me is done.  I am no longer predestined to be made into His image; I am in His image – mature, complete, finished.

But we’ve also just begun.  First, the Kingdom on earth for a thousand years.  Then, eternity, in bliss and blessed.

The tiny disposable plastic cup of juice you are about to drink contains all this hope as it proclaims Jesus’ death till He comes.

It is for remembering; but it is also for rejoicing.  Raise your glass with Jesus – in thankfulness, and in anticipation.