As We Come to the Table #1

I want to ask two questions as we contemplate the coming of Communion.

What do we examine? And then secondly, how do we respond in our own lives as we contemplate the Lord's Table? This is the Truth Pulpit, featuring the Bible teaching of Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio.

I'm Bill Wright. Today, Don will continue his look at the Lord's Communion Table by showing us how to be sure our hearts are in the right place before we partake. If you're ready, let's get started as Don continues teaching God's people God's Word.

Here is the second half of a message titled, As We Come to the Table, here on the Truth Pulpit. Look over at the book of Philippians chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2 verse 1. He says, Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, he says, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves.

Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. And then he goes and illustrates it by showing that that was the very attitude with which Christ came into the world. Nothing from selfishness, nothing from empty conceit, but marked by a humble spirit that seeks the oneness of mind, the oneness of love, the oneness of unity in Christ, that that would be the mark of everyone who is a living participant in the life of the body of Christ. And so we take this commitment seriously because Scripture takes it seriously. This is a direct consequence of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ for his people because Christ was concerned for the love and the unity of his people, that becomes a preeminent concern for everyone who knows Christ.

And the idea of tolerating, cultivating any kind of division or resentment within the body is utterly contrary to the spirit of the New Testament 100%. Scripture says, and we need to be mindful of this in the midst of all of our blessing, we need to be mindful of the fact that we do have an adversary. Scripture says that the adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. And we are not ignorant of the devices of Satan. He stirs up false doctrine.

He quietly sows division within the church. And for me, it is my particular responsibility as a pastor to keep the fence up and to keep the fence repaired in order to protect the work of the Lord in the midst of his own flock. And so we have to take these things seriously. But we realize that the spirit of Scripture, when you recognize the blessing of God, the Spirit of God comes to us and says in the words of Scripture, you're doing well, but you're doing well, but excel still more. The work is not done.

We have not arrived at anything. There is work to be done. And so we must watch and protect what has been given to us. We must be diligent to make sure that we ourselves are contributing everything to the positive development of this work and those of us that have entered into it after the beginning of it, that we come in with a sense that I'm here to contribute to what is already being taken place. And it ought to be a matter of great concern and caution and watchfulness for each one of us to say, I would never want to be the one through whom division came into the church, that my own attitudes, my words, my remoteness would somehow diminish the work of God in this place that is so obviously under the blessing of God. Now, having said that, I know that no one would intend to do that.

Certainly none of our membership would intend to do that. But these things can happen when we're not paying attention. And so we have to watch ourselves.

Think about it this way. You remember when the Lord told even Peter, said, Peter, get behind me, Satan, when Peter tried to discourage him from going to the cross. Just moments earlier, Peter had recognized Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God. Christ had affirmed him and said, blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood did not reveal this to you but my Father who is in heaven. And so Peter was tracking.

Peter had it right. And in the very next moment, he becomes a mouthpiece for the devil in trying to hinder the advance of Christ to the appointed cross where he would redeem his people. We have an opportunity to give thanks for all that we've been given. And we also have an opportunity to examine ourselves, every one of us. In Scripture, as we contemplate communion, you can kind of see how all of this is coming together, Scripture speaks to us about how to prepare our hearts for the Lord's table. And that is what I want to address from the perspective of gratitude for all that the Lord has done, considering the present and looking forward to the future as well.

As you know very well, the Lord's table is a time at which we remember the Lord's death for us, the bread representing his body that was on the tree, the juice indicating the blood that was shed through his wounds at the cross for the atonement of our sins. And it reminds us of his love and his suffering for us. And it keeps fresh in our minds the gratitude in our hearts for what our Lord did for us. But in the end, we have to remember what the Lord did for us.

But as you read Scripture, it's not just that. Leading up to communion is also a time of self-examination and preparation. Now normally, normally in the way that things are done, you know, normally the time of preparation is just a brief, you know, there's a, you know, we have a consideration of the Lord's Word, and then we take the elements and we prepare that way. But the way that the Lord has blessed us this week is that he's giving us an opportunity to hear things, to take them in and to have a period of a couple of days in order to process this and to examine ourselves and to ask ourselves whether there is anything in us that might be hindering, that might be contrary to, better stated, anything in us that might be contrary to that loving, gracious, wonderful spirit that the Lord intends for his people to enjoy and to live out in their own lives and with each other.

And so I want to ask two questions as we contemplate the coming of communion. What do we examine? We say that we're called to self-examination. Well, what do we examine in that light? And then secondly, to address the question, how do we respond?

How do we respond? And so we need to know what it is that we should examine ourselves for, and then we need to know how to respond. What I want to address to you here today is to realize that the process of preparing ourselves for communion calls us to examine matters of church unity, actually, and our part and our role and whether we're contributing to that or detracting that. And so to take you to the consideration of this, I want you to turn to 1 Corinthians 11. 1 Corinthians 11, as we consider what it is that we should examine in our own lives as we contemplate the Lord's table.

This is for us to take personally, for us to examine ourselves individually and to contemplate the tenor of our lives, the tenor of our conversations, the tenor of our relationships in light of the priority that the Lord puts on the unity and blessing of his people. So in 1 Corinthians 11, you'll remember that the church at Corinth had a number of spiritual problems in their midst. There were divisions that Paul alludes to right from the beginning in chapter 1, and then they had all kinds of selfish manifestations in the life of the body. It's always remarkable to see that Paul addresses them as believers in the light of the carnality and the division that was in the church. And it shows us that even genuine believers as recognized by an apostle can have many, many things that need to be sanctified in their lives.

And the way that they approached the Lord's table was one of those matters at the church of Corinth. So in chapter 11, verse 17, the apostle Paul says this. He says, But in giving this instruction, I do not praise you, because you come together not for the better, but for the worse. For in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that divisions exist among you, and in part I believe it.

For there must also be factions among you, so that those who are approved may become evident among you. Then he goes into dealing with the Lord's table, the Lord's Supper. And he says, verse 20, Therefore, when you meet together, it is not to eat the Lord's Supper. For in your eating, each one takes his own supper first, and one is hungry and another is drunk.

What? Do you not have houses in which to eat and drink? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you?

In this I will not praise you. And he goes on to describe the Lord's table in verse 23. He says, For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, in the night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, he took the cup also after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. What Paul has done there is he's set their existing practice side by side with the way that the Lord instituted the Lord's Supper at that last Passover meal before he was crucified. And he contrasts there the Lord's generous sacrificial spirit with the carnality and the divisive spirit that was marking the church at that time.

People were coming together for a meal and people were just hurrying to serve themselves and take care of themselves while others were left on the side without anything to eat or drink. Paul says, This is shameful that you're behaving this way. And he goes on and gives instruction about the way that Christ intends his table, how the spirit of that is to be. His table, the Lord's table, is to be a time of loving harmony for the people of God.

And as we're going to see, beloved, conscious, every word I'm about to say here is important and emphatic here. Conscious toleration of broken relationships in the body of Christ violates the spirit of harmony that the Lord's table is supposed to promote. And for someone to come with conscious division, conscious resentment, conscious grudges in their heart and in their mind against another believer in Christ and come to the table that way is an utter reversal of what the Lord intends the table to promote. So that in verse 27 here, in 1 Corinthians 11 verse 27, he says this. He says, Therefore, in light of how the Lord instituted the table, therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.

This is serious. He's saying this is a sin against the sacrifice of Christ to approach the Lord's table with division and resentment in your heart toward others in the body of Christ and selfishness toward them. So he goes on in verse 28 and says here's the consequence of this. But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. Before we come to the table, we're to examine ourselves for these things, to examine ourselves not only for whether we had our quiet time the day before, we're to examine ourselves and to contemplate whether you are actively involved in resentment or grudges toward someone else in the body of Christ.

And you're to examine that and to deal with it. Verse 29 he says, For he who eats and drinks, in an unworthy manner otherwise, eats and drinks judgment to himself, if he does not judge the body rightly. So much so that, verse 30, for this reason many among you are weak and sick and a number sleep. He said God is disciplining you. You're experiencing physical weakness and physical judgment. Some people have even died as a result of God's judgment upon them, God's discipline upon them for not taking the Lord's table in a worthy manner.

So it's very serious. In verse 31 he says, But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. In other words, if you examine yourselves and you deal with things, then you can take the Lord's table without a fear of judgment. But if you ignore that process of examination, if you come with consciously tolerated division in your heart, and you're not dealing with that, the Lord's table is no longer a blessing but an instrument of judgment upon you when you do.

It's very, very serious. And so Paul says, verse 31, If we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world. We are to examine ourselves before we come to the Lord's table.

And it's obviously not a superficial matter that you can just do in a few seconds before you tip the cup back and take the element. Paul is speaking in the context of communion and disunity in the church. And so, beloved, what you and I are to do, you know, we're all under the authority of the Lord here and the authority of the Word. What you and I are to do is we are to examine ourselves for this. What do we examine? We don't examine other people.

We don't examine what others in the body are doing. We look in the mirror and we examine ourselves. We examine ourselves to see if we are holding grudges or bitterness against anyone in the body.

If there is a relational disruption that is in the body that you are participating in, that you are a part of. Beloved, it is not a question of whether there was a wrong done to you or not. That's not the spirit of this at all.

And that if, well, you know, there was a wrong done to me and therefore I'm justified in my, you know, in my resentment. That's so wrong. That is so utterly contrary to the spirit of Christ. Think about it. Jesus Christ was sinless. All of us had sinned against him and he had legitimate grievances against us when he came into the world and when he laid his life down and sacrificed himself in order that we might be forgiven.

That's the spirit. Christ had done no wrong. He bore the grievance. He bore the sin himself in order that we might be forgiven, something that we did not deserve. The question that we need to put aside in these matters, and it can be, you know, within a family, within a marriage, not just within the broader body of Christ. The question is not, did that person wrong me?

The question is, that you're examining yourself for, is there a gracious, forgiving spirit in my heart toward the one that I am thinking about? It's not a question of whether you were wronged. Christ was wronged far more, infinitely more than any of us have been wronged on a horizontal level.

And he came and he sacrificed and he forgave. And so the question isn't whether you've been wronged or whether you think you've been wronged. That's the wrong starting point. The question for the self-examination is whether you, I say this gently, but it needs to be said. The question is whether you are holding something that is against someone in the body of Christ, something against your spouse, against a child, against a parent, against a friend in the body of Christ. This is where you start and say, you know, there is something wrong in my heart here. I've been angry and bitter about this for a long time, and the Word of God is convicting me about it.

It's obvious that my heart has not been right here. That's where we start. Now, overall, for those of you that are visiting, you're out of town and I don't want to give the wrong impression here. Overall, and for all of the church here, I want to make very clear, overall we have a peaceful, unified spirit at Truth Community Church. I believe that. I think that that is true, and I'm very grateful for it, and I know I speak for the other elders when I say that. At the same time, beloved, for none of us, none of us, this is not the first rodeo for any of us. We've all been around the block, you know, and most of us have been around the block in the Church of Christ for a long period of time. You and I would be foolish and unfaithful even to think that there aren't occasional undercurrents, occasional streams that run contrary to that spirit of unity in our body, whether it's in homes or whether it's in the broader church. And so we're not talking about someone else.

We're talking about you. You know, we're holding up a mirror to you through the Word of God. And so I'd ask the question this way, and let me say this. One of the most difficult things that I have encountered in pastoral ministry is dealing with somebody that is bitter against someone else. There is sometimes, if not often, they become enveloped in a suffocating, overbearing sense of self-righteousness that that person wronged me, and I'm justified in resenting them. It is humanly impossible to pierce through that self-righteousness and that angry spirit in order to get people to look at it objectively. And that's part of the reason why I want to preach and open the Word of God on the matter is because I believe that the Spirit of God uses the Word of God in the hearts of His people and goes where human words cannot go.

And so I ask you this question. What would a spirit of disunity look like in your heart? What would it look like in your heart? And I want to give you four A's, not because you've done well here, as if this were an education class, but four A's for you to think about and to help you in your spirit of self-examination. I'm going to give you four words here that go from inward to outward in it.

And just to say it briefly, four A's to help you identify a spirit of disunity in your own heart. Well, number one is anger. Anger. Do you have an inward resentment against someone over something from the past that they said or didn't say, did or didn't do? You know, is there an inward resentment in your heart towards someone else in the body for whatever reason? And we say that and we start there because we remember what the Lord God said about Himself. 1 Samuel 16, verse 7, it said, The Lord is not like a man. He doesn't look on the outward appearance of a man. He looks at the heart.

He looks at this inward matter. And is there anger in your heart? Is there resentment? Is there bitterness toward another person in your heart? That's a bad sign.

That's a bad sign, especially if it's been there and you know that it's been there for a long period of time, more than a few hours or a couple of days. You know, you start to embrace that and more and more you go on. Secondly, there's this matter of accusation. Accusation.

You complain verbally to other people about the person, maybe bypassing, addressing the person directly as Matthew 18 would call you to do, and instead you just complain that, do you know what this person did? Do you know what he did to me? Do you know what he said?

Do you know what they did? And there are accusations that are made and sometimes maybe it's nothing more than simply having these conversations around your own dinner table and just feeding off of that within the confines of your own family. That's not okay. I realize those are private conversations at your own table, but those words are an expression of what's in your heart. And it's very possible for people to turn their family against others through the poisoning words that they injected, you know, in the context of your own home. So anger, accusation. Thirdly, avoidance.

We're just being real here. This is what we need to address. Avoidance. You won't talk to the person. You see them coming and you walk the other way. Pretend like you didn't see them.

You won't engage them. And fourthly, here's the worst one of them all. Here's the climax of it all. Alibi. Alibi.

You justify your behavior to yourself or to someone else if you're questioned about it. Don Green, bringing our study to a close for today. And friend, we're so glad you could join us here on The Truth Pulpit. Our teacher will continue with our series titled Reflections on Our Lord next time. Meanwhile, if you'd like a copy of today's lesson or you'd like to find out more about this ministry, just go to thetruthpulpit.com. While you're there, you'll find all of Don's teachings along with other great free resources.

Also, you'll discover an opportunity to support this ministry financially. That's all at thetruthpulpit.com. And now before we go, here again is Don with a closing thought. Well, friend, I have a simple request for you as we close our broadcast today. Would you go to our website, thetruthpulpit.com, and simply send us a quick note to tell us where you listen to the broadcast, whether it's a radio station or a podcast or a particular website you use? Knowing where you listen can help us make sure that The Truth Pulpit stays available in your area. So please, my friend, go to thetruthpulpit.com and let us hear from you. Thanks, Don. And thank you, dear friend, for being with us today. I'm Bill Wright. We'll see you next time on The Truth Pulpit, where Don Green continues teaching God's people God's Word.