1 Corinthians chapter number 11 today. We are concluding a series today entitled Not About Me. Can we all say that together? Not about me. If you're a kid in the room, let's say that together.
All the kids, not about me. Very good. About three of them helped me out. And so, but not about me. And I know that that's probably not what you came to church to hear today.
Isn't that just such an uplifting, exciting thing? You know, as you leave here and be like, man, it's been a good day in church. We found out it's not about us. And sometimes we need to be reminded about that. And in fact, The church at Corinth, which is where this series has been, through chapters 8, 9, 10, and 11, we have seen that the church at Corinth was struggling in a lot of different ways.
And some of the root cause of their struggles was that they were making life. about them. They were making life about them. and about their own freedoms. Their own rights.
their own preferences. And ultimately their own Glory. And so Paul writes this letter. It's a very, what I would call, correctional. Instructive letter to the church at Corinth, and he writes this letter.
Now, mind you, this is written about five years after the church was planted.
So, in this church, there were a lot of new believers. There was a lot of people that had been saved recently. And so, we would call them babes in Christ. And they were in this church, and they were asking a lot of questions. And so, Paul, he writes, with this theme in mind: hey, life is not all about you.
And so, he says, We learned in chapter eight, it's about others over ourselves. In chapter nine, we learned that it is about the gospel. Over ourselves. In chapter 10, we learn that it is about God's glory. Over ourselves.
And then today we are going to look that it's about Jesus. Over ourselves. It's about Jesus over ourselves or Christ. Ezel Now we're Ourselves.
So, 1 Corinthians chapter number 11. 1 Corinthians chapter number 11, we are going to see this idea that it is about Christ. Over ourselves. Verse number 20 says this: when you come together, Therefore, into one place This is not to eat the Lord's Supper. For in eating, every one taketh before other his own supper, and one is hungry.
And another is drunken. What have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? Or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this?
I praise you not. For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, Take, eat, this is my body, which is broken for you. This due in remembrance. of me.
After verse 25, after the same manner also he took the cup when he had supped, saying, This cup is. Is the New Testament in my blood? This do ye as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come. Wherefore, whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall come.
Shall be guilty of the body. And blood. Of the Lord. Verse twenty-eight, but let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself.
Not discerning. The Lords. Body.
Now, there's a lot there, and I wanted to read that straight through, and I'm going to give you a little bit of commentary on what was happening here in the church at Corinth. But I mentioned that the church at Corinth had a lot of different questions, they were struggling over a lot of different things. One of those main things that we have learned about is they were struggling over these middle grounds. Type of issues, these middle ground type of issues that they were struggling with, like meat sacrificed to idols. And so Paul is writing back and he's trying to answer these questions because, because of their questions, they were struggling with different things like divisions in the church, because many people felt different ways and they were judging the other and different things like that.
So there was conflict in the middle of the church, but there was also sexual immorality in the church that was going around. They were having all these issues. In fact, we didn't look at this, but if we had looked in chapter seven, because of some of these conflicts that they were having, they were suing one another in the church. It was just a messed up kind of situation that the church at Corinth was struggling with. And here, as we come to chapter number 11, we see that they were also struggling.
With how they did communion. How they did communion. In fact, you could say that here they were mishandling. How they took of the Lord's Supper. They were mishandling how they handled the Lord's Supper.
You say, What happened?
Well, in verses 1 through 19, and I'm not going to take the time to read those of chapter 11. What was happening was when the church would take communion together, the Lord's table together. Is what was happening is that the rich people, the rich people there in the church, they were partaking of communion. And what would happen is a lot of times those that were poor for different reasons couldn't be there as early as the rich folks. And so what was happening was the more wealthy people in the church, they were starting communion, something that all of us should be taking together as a local church.
But the rich was taking it so early that when the poor people got there, it was already done and they had already kind of celebrated this together. Many of them were getting drunk and all these different things. It was just this wild situation there in the church at Corinth. And so Paul is writing and telling them that they don't understand communion at all. That they don't understand the reason why we take communion together because if they did.
They would not mishandle it in such a way. In fact, if they understood. Why we take communion and the Lord's table together, they would take it together as a church. The rich would not take it before the poor because the gospel, the reason why we take communion, it's the one thing that unifies all classes of people. In other words, when it comes to the gospel, there is no rich or poor.
There is none. We are all equal. The ground is level at the foot of the cross. It doesn't matter the family that you grew up in. It doesn't matter the cards that you were dealt in your life.
It doesn't matter any of those things because what Paul's saying is this: that communion is an opportunity for churches to remember Christ's sacrifice to us. And when we do that, there is no rich or poor. We are all together Saved by the grace of Almighty God. And that's what we learn here. And so Paul is writing to them directly about communion.
Now I'll be honest with you, I've taken communion. You know, since I've been saved as a kid, I've taken it so many different times with our local church. And this is the first time that I've ever really preached an entire sermon around communion. But today, what I want to do from 1 Corinthians chapter number 11, I figured with the kids in the room, this would be helpful. I wanted to really talk about what is communion.
And why do we practice it and how do we practice it?
So I want to look at like what is communion. And why do we practice it? And also, how do we partake of communion together? And so I want to kind of start, depending on your church background, I understand we're all from different Church backgrounds, and I want to be respectful to wherever you were before here. And so, depending on your church background, this could be called communion, the Lord's Supper.
That's the church that I grew up in. We called it the Lord's Supper. And then, there's also, if you're from a little bit more of a higher church, somewhat of a liturgical type of church background, you might have referred to it as Eucharist or something like that. And here's what I want you to know: regardless of what you have called it or what you've heard this referred to, communion, Lord's Supper, Eucharist, here's what I'll tell you. All of them are right.
They're all scriptural. And I'll show you why. Communion is actually mentioned right here in our text, but it's also mentioned in chapter 10. If you want to look over just a page, chapter 10, verse 16, it says, the cup of blessing, which we bless, is it not the communion? Of the blood of Christ.
In other words, here's what we learn: the word communion there in chapter number 10, it has this idea of fellowship. It has this idea of participation. And what he's trying to say, and this is why I like to call it communion, because when we look at the word communion, It's this idea that we fellowship together and that all of us participate with remembering this together. As a body of believers, all of us who are partaking here today, we are saved by the blood of Jesus, and there is no status, there's no hierarchy with us in Christ. We are all guilty of our sin, and we were all in need of a Savior.
And so, communion is mentioned here in Scripture as really this idea that we participate with one another and with Christ in what He has done. There's this connection that we have, but also you see here in chapter 11, verse number 20, you see this idea, verse 20 of chapter 11: when you come together, Therefore, into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper.
So here he tells us about the Lord's Supper.
So he calls it communion, chapter 10. He calls it Lord's Supper here in chapter 11, verse 20. And then in chapter 11, verse 24, it says this: And when he had given. Thanks, he broke it and said, Take eat, this is my body. which is broken for you, this do in remembrance of me.
The phrase given thanks is actually a Greek word and the word is Eucharisto. And so, if your background, if you heard this growing up, whatever church you came from, or whatever, if you heard it called the Eucharist, here's what I want you to know: it's the same thing.
So, as we look to this today, regardless of what you call it, communion, Lord's Supper, or Eucharist, let me tell you this: it's all referring to the same thing. It's all referring to the same thing. And so you could call it communion, which is what I'm going to refer to it as today, or any of these things. It is the same thing. But Jesus.
committed to what we call ordinances in the church.
So there are two ordinances that the church should practice. You say, what is an ordinance? An ordinance is something that is instructed by Christ. and practiced by the church. It's something that is instructed by Jesus Christ Himself and practiced by the local church.
And so the two ordinances that our church. should participate in on a regular basis Is communion? and baptism. Those are the two ordinances that Christ instructed the church to do and to practice us, to practice. And so for us to understand, and I hope that I'm not going too deep for some of you in here, but for us to understand.
What Jesus did when he instituted the Lord's Supper. We have to go back almost 3,000 years ago. We have to go back almost 3,000 years ago, and so we're going to kind of work through the entire Bible for just a moment. I'm going to give you a cliff note version, so it's okay, okay? But if you were to go back all the way to the book of Genesis...
And you were to see God calling. Call out a man, Genesis chapter 12. He calls out a man by the name of Abraham.
Okay. And we would know Abraham, right? And kiddos, you know Abraham, mainly because Abraham had many sons, right? And many sons had father Abraham, did he not? And so he had a lot of different sons.
And so God called him. And you know what? God told Abraham: He said, This: that I'm going to make of you a great nation.
Okay, I'm gonna make your name great But there was a problem. Abraham and his wife Sarah couldn't have kids, could they? And so how is he going to make of him a great nation if they couldn't even have children?
Well, you just got to trust God, and God can do the rest. And that's what Abraham had to do. And so later in life, Abraham did have, like the song said, many sons. And so he had 12 sons, and we know them as the 12 tribes of Israel. They were the Hebrews in the Old Testament.
And so when they, there was a famine in the land, you remember this story. And during this famine, the children of Israel are sent down to a place called Egypt.
Now, uh the twelve tribes of Israel they had one brother that they did not like. Let's just be honest. How many of you have a sibling that you kind of fight with from time to time? My hand's raised. I have one.
Adults, you can raise your hand as well.
Okay? But listen, here's what I'll tell you. Gray, I tell you, you really do.
Okay, I feel you. And so. But here's what I will tell you: is this, is like, I hope. That you have never sold your sibling into slavery. Any of you have ever done that before, okay?
Well, they sold Joseph into slavery. Joseph makes his way to Egypt. He begins to work there in Egypt. And when this famine came, these 12 tribes of Israel's brothers, they come and they hadn't seen him in so long, so they come there, and they end up making everything right. Joseph.
Forgives them. for what he did. And then later, this new Pharaoh comes to. comes to rain there in uh they're in Egypt. And when the new Pharaoh came, he was intimidated by the Hebrews because the Hebrews just kept multiplying and multiplying, just like God had predicted, and they kept multiplying.
There were so many Hebrews and so many people that they were intimidated. And so, what he did was he put the Egyptian, or the Israelites, the Hebrews, into Egyptian captivity. In other words, they were slaves to the Egyptians. And after four hundred years of being enslaved, God finally responds to the cries. of the Hebrews there in Egypt.
He finally listens to them, and he rises up a man to lead them out of Egypt. Does anybody know who that was? Moses, okay?
So he, you know, he talks to Moses through a burning bush there in the middle of the wilderness. And Moses then is now responsible to go before Pharaoh and say, Let my people go, right? And so he did, and when Pharaoh would say no, God sent a bunch of different plagues. You remember the ten plagues? It was locusts and flies, and their cattle was dying.
The rivers turned to blood. I mean, it was terrible. It was like the worst thing in the world. And every time, Pharaoh's heart would be hardened. And so God would just continue to send another plague when he would not listen to Moses and listen really to God through Moses.
And then on the tenth plague. Which was the worst. God said, Pharaoh, if you're not going to listen to Moses, what's going to happen is that what we would call the death of the firstborn, that all of your firstborn in every household is going to die. The only ones that will be saved. Are the ones that go out and kill a lamb?
And they take the blood. And they put the blood over the doorpost. And when I come through on this night, the angel of death, when I send the angel of death through there, the camp. And I see the blood, I will pass over your house and your. Firstborn will be saved.
Well, the Israelites all believed in the one true God of Israel.
So they killed the lamb, they put the blood up, and so when the angel came through that night, That night when he kind of swept through, all of them were saved because they trusted in the blood and what Christ had said or what God had said. But the Egyptians didn't believe in that one true God of Israel.
So, what they did was they just ignored What God had said. And so the next morning, can you imagine this? All the firstborn of every household. had died. Can you imagine the cries there in Egypt?
The grief. that every household experience there And it was after that plague that God led the nation of Israel out of Egyptian captivity, which they had been in for 400 years. After that, here's what he did: he instituted this day called Passover. Can everybody say the word Passover? Passover.
He instituted this important day. In fact, it's really a part of a Jewish feast, and we're not going to go into. And Passover was something that every single year, The nation of Israel would travel into Jerusalem. They were required to do this. They would go into Jerusalem and they would observe Passover together.
You say, What is Passover?
Well, Passover was a time that they would remember That moment that God led, that God passed over their homes because of the blood on the doorpost, and they would remember that that is what God used to deliver them and to save them. From Egyptian. Captivity.
So every year moving forward, the nation of Israel would remember. Passover. Well, if you fast forward all the way to the New Testament, Matthew chapter number 26. Jesus gathers his disciples, his twelve disciples, into that what we would call the upper room. He gathers his disciples into the upper room, and the reason why he gathered them was this was the night of Passover.
This same Jewish feast that they had to partake of every year. This was routine. This is something that they knew to do. In fact, there's a lot of instructions about how Passover was to go in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, they were told that every year they had to kill a lamb.
And they had to sacrifice this lamb, and they had to eat all of the lamb in that one night. As a reminder of what Christ or what God had done by giving them deliverance and salvation from Egyptian captivity.
So, this is something that the Jewish people had always done. And now they're gathered together, something that they always have done. It's kind of like for you and I, you know, just think of it like Thanksgiving, right? It's something that we do, it's not new, it's something that every year we know we gather together with family and we give thanks or whatever. It's kind of like that for the Jewish people.
And so here they all gathered together for the same thing that they had always done because they were Jewish. And Jesus completely repurposes everything that they had ever known about Passover. And he says this to them. He tells them in Matthew chapter 26 that the bread that we are going to partake together. is symbolic of the body That is going to be broken in just a few short hours.
for the sins of the whole world. And he tells them that the cup... The wine that they are going to drink. is going to be symbolic from this day forward. of the blood That was sh that will be shed.
For the sands. of all people. And so, what you learn is, Jesus is repurposing all of this just before, hours before he's going to be betrayed, hours before he is going to be crucified and die on a cross for the sins of the whole world. Here, Jesus is gathering them together and he's telling them this: all these years before, you've been commemorating Passover as a reminder. of my salvation and deliverance out of Egyptian bondage.
And now, from this day forward, Matthew 26 and forward, you're going to get together yearly. And you're going to remember not my deliverance. out of Egypt. Not your deliverance out of Egypt. But now your deliverance out of the bondage of sin that has entangled you.
And it is going to be. Forever. And what he tells the church to do is just like what he did in that upper room. He wants the church. to remember Not what he did out of Egypt, that plague, and how he delivered.
No, he wants you to remember how, because of Christ's sacrifice, Because of the body that was broken and because of the blood that was shed. We now can have deliverance. Over. Sin. We can have deliverance over.
Sam. That is the history. of communion. And the Lord's table. That's why we partake.
It's to remember these things. And so here, going back to our text in 1 Corinthians 11. Is really here in 1 Corinthians 11. Paul gives just a few things, and I'm going to run through these quickly. He gives a few things that really I would call theology of communion: what we do, how we take of this.
We just learned why. And so now it's really some practical things that we must remember. The first one is this: communion is a declaration of Christ's sacrifice for us. Can we all say that together? Communion is a declaration of Christ's sacrifice for us.
For us. In verse number 26 of chapter 11, There's a word there that I want to highlight for just a second. He says this: For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, Ye do, what's the next word? Show. Everybody say that word together.
Show. You do show here's what that word literally means. That means that you declare it. That means that you proclaim it. The word show is really it carries on the idea that you preach it.
Now, you might not be preachers. You might not be up here, you know, delivering a sermon, but here's what he's saying to the church, to the saints, to everyone there in the church at Corinth, and to the church here at Union Grove, if we kind of contextualize it today. He's saying that communion is an opportunity for you to declare and to preach to yourself and to the world what Christ has done for us. That's why we take of communion. This is an opportunity for you to declare and show what Christ has done for you.
You are free. Your chains are gone. and the blood that was shed on Calvary. is why today you can declare that you are free. That you are free.
Communion is a declaration of Christ's sacrifice for us. But not only that, in verse 25, communion is a reflection. On Christ's sacrifice for us. Verse 25, he says this of chapter 11. After the same manner, also he took the cup.
When he had supped, saying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood. This do ye, as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me. Listen, this is a reflection. time. Let me say this, this is a serious time.
When we take of communion, it's not a time to goof off. It's not a time to take it lightly. It is a time to reflect upon the sacrifice of Christ for you. To really, you know, we do this in remembrance of him. It's not routine.
It's not ritualistic. It isn't habit. We have come together today to remember what Christ did on the cross, to remember that it is about him, it isn't about you. You see, the beauty of the gospel is that God came for you, not when you were looking for him. But when you were actually sinning against him.
So this story is not about you, it's about him. And that's why it's about Christ and his sacrifice for us. That's why we take this seriously. That's why we. We take this seriously.
Verse number three: communion. is an examination Of ourselves before God.
So we see communion is a declaration of Christ's sacrifice for us. It's a reflection on Christ's sacrifice for us. But then, number three, it's an examination. Verse 28, he says, But let a man examine himself. He's given him instructions on how to take communion.
We must examine ourselves. As we come to this.
Now, one thing that's interesting in Scripture, so if you're wondering, do I partake or not, I want to kind of answer that question for just a moment. One thing is, you know, that I've always heard growing up is like Christians. Don't take communion. Or, I mean, not Christians, unbelievers don't take communion. And I've always heard that, and it makes sense because if you don't know Jesus as your Savior, then you're not believing on everything that communion is symbolic of.
So, if you don't know Jesus, but here's what's interesting. I looked in scripture, and there's not a whole lot about unbelievers, but here's what I'll tell you: there is a very direct and strong warning. to Christians who take this unlightly.
So, today, as we partake of this, I don't want you to think like, I don't know if that person's a believer. No, I want you to focus on your own judgmental heart instead of the everybody else. Does that make sense? Is that direct enough? And so the reason I say that is this.
The Bible says there is a very direct thing about believers taking of the cup and communion. In an unworthy manner. That's why we must, as we come to this, we must examine ourselves. We must you say, what does that mean? It means to examine our hearts.
To look if there be any sin in you. It's a time to reflect. It's a time to confess. It's a time to repent. It's a time to look so deeply at your heart.
to find if there be any sin in you.
So that you can confess that here today and repent of your sin.
So that you can take this cup in a manner Like Christ.
So listen, today it's fitting that we're going to take of communion. I wanted to kind of show you a little bit about. What communion is, why we practice it, and how we are to practice it. And so today we're going to take that together. And I want you to remember today as we partake of communion, it is a declaration of what Christ has done for you.
It is you really preaching to yourself and to the world that Christ is the sacrifice that has paved the way so that you can come into the presence of Almighty God. And if you're in here today and you don't know Jesus, this would be a perfect opportunity for you to say, hey, I've been trusting in my own works, my own strength, and now I'm going to trust in the blood that was shed for me. And then you can partake with us here today. Today, it's a declaration. It is a reminder of what Christ has done.
And it is a time for us.
