Hi, this is Dave Olson. I'm the senior leader of
Heartland Church located in Ankeny, IA.
I hope the following message challenges, encourages, and
ultimately changes you. Thanks for joining us.
Good morning. What a beautiful day, huh?
God is good. Beautiful outside, presence
inside. It's going to be a good day.
Turn with me to 1st Corinthians Chapter 11.
We are going to receive the Lord's Supper Communion, however
you want to refer to it. We're going to look at that
today. I want to do a little teaching
on it. I from time to time, we want to
relook at this amazing prophetic act that we participate in.
You know, any scripture, there are many facets to any passage.
So you're never going to be able to Plumb the depths of
Scripture. You're never going to be able to
just the Bible will never be a book.
You say, well, yeah, I read that you, you can spend the we will
spend eternity unpacking this thing and we're still going to
be in 10,000 years from now, God will open up a little facet.
We'll fall on our face for about 3 years and ah, and then we'll
get back up. And just so we cover from that
one, he'll show us another piece.
So we're never going to be able to grasp the full depth of this
beautiful prophetic meal that we're going to participate in
this morning. But I do want to point out one
facet of it this morning. I want to look at one, look at
it from 1 angle, one perspective.
So if you want to look with me at verse 17, First Corinthians
Chapter 11, I would propose to you that Chapter 11 and 12
culminate in chapter 13. Now we know that chapter 12 is
about spiritual gifts, chapter 13 about love, but I would
propose to you Chapter 11 is in that same vein.
The book of First Corinthians is one of the most corrective books
that Paul wrote. He had to correct those guys a
lot. And so some people say, well,
you know, they were the most charismatic church.
No, they were just, you could say they were the most
charismaniac church. They were they, they needed the
most instruction. All the New Testament churches
were charismatic. All the New Testament churches
operated in the gifts. But the problem with Corinth is
they lacked no spiritual gift, Paul said.
But they did lack character. And so there were issues that
needed to be addressed. And this is right along in that
vein. And so Paul is driving towards
the answer, which is love. But he's going to he's going to
address some things in this passage.
And so we see in verse 17. And before we read it, let's
pray. Father.
Lord, I ask that you would speak to us.
And Father, I ask that the plow blade of your word would go deep
into the soil of our heart. And Lord, it would turn over any
stone, any unyielding area of our life.
Lord, anything that would be a hindrance to the seed of your
word, we ask that you would take it out this morning.
Father, we ask for surgery in our hearts in Jesus name, Amen.
All right, verse 17. But in the following
instructions, I do not commend you because when you come
together, it is not for the better but for the worse.
Paul just comes right out of the gate.
He says your gatherings actually do more harm than good.
That's what he's saying, that when you come together you end
up in a worse place than when you entered in.
That's a sobering rebuke, isn't it?
He says in the following instructions, I do not commend
you, not condemn you, commend you.
I can't commend you in this. He, he reiterates this.
If you look at the end of chapter verse 22, he said, what
shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this?
No, I will not. And so he's rebuking them,
correcting them about a misuse of the Lord's Supper.
So he says, but in the following instructions, I do not commend
you because when you come together it is for better and
not it is not for better, but for the worse.
He says that three times when you come together, when you come
together, anytime you're studying a passage, you want to
look at repeated words, phrases and ideas.
So if there are certain words, phrases, or ideas that are
repeated, that repetition shows that there's something that that
author, that the Spirit of God on that human author is really
wanting to push to the forefront.
And so he says when you come together, it is not for better
for the better, it's for the worse.
Then he says down the next verse, for in the 1st place,
when you come together as a church, I hear there are
divisions among you. Then in verse 20, when you come
together, it is not the Lord's Supper that you eat.
That's a sobering statement. He says what you think is the
Lord's Supper really doesn't qualify as the Lord's Supper.
You think you're taking communion, but you're not
because your heart posture going into this thing violates the
very spirit of the Lord's Supper.
So we may say, hey, we're going to take communion this morning
and the Lord said we'll see. God evaluates it by what He
unpacks here. Are we really participating in
communion? And so my computer is beeping
with texts up here. OK.
But in the following instructions, I do not commend
you. What are the instructions?
He's going to unpack what those instructions are starting in
verse 23. There's he he received a direct
communication from the Lord. He's going to drop the word of
the Lord on the Corinthians is what he's going to do.
And so he says, but in the following instructions, I do not
commend you because when you come together, it's not for the
better but for the worse. For in the 1st place, when you
come together as a church, I hear there are divisions among
you. And he says, and I believe it in
part, for there must be factions among you in order that those
who are genuine may be recognized.
And so he said that there's there are those who are really
going after this thing and then there's the hangers on on the
side, there's always that. But he said we we don't want to
accommodate, we don't want to cultivate, we don't want to
tolerate divisions. We want to go after this thing.
So we're all going together in this thing called the church.
So when you come together three times in this passage where he's
talking about the Lord's Supper or communion, he uses the word
when you or the phrase when you come together.
And one of the takeaways of this is that communion is a corporate
practice. Now, that's not to say that you
cannot take communion alone. I know that there are people,
dear friends of mine, that do that quite often they
participate in communion or the Lord's Supper in private as part
of their devotional life. And that's fine.
But I'm telling you what Paul's really after here.
You can, you can touch some things, you can appreciate some
things. You can participate in that in a
limited basis just between you and the Lord.
But the real end game of this thing is common union communion,
that we are in unity together around a commonality called
Christ, and that we're entering into this thing together.
And that's why Paul says when you come together, when you come
together, when you come together, this is part of the
the whole thing of communion. And so it's a corporate meal in
which we fellowship around the thing we have in common and the
thing which unites us, and that is Christ.
So he says, for in the 1st place, when you come together as
a church, I hear there are divisions among you.
Jump down to verse 20. When you come together, it is
not the Lord's Supper that you eat.
So Paul is saying just because we think it is, doesn't mean it
is. Are we meeting the criteria?
What is that criteria? Listen to what he rebukes him
now. He says for an eating, each one
goes ahead with his own meal. That violates the spirit of what
Paul's trying to communicate to us, that this is a corporate
meal, not an individual meal. And so they would literally have
a meal together. They were called love feasts.
And so they would gather together and they'd sit down and
everybody would bring their their food and they would sit
down to fellowship. And some were poor and didn't
have anything. Others were wealthy and had a
lot. And he says, man, we start
community and everybody just eats on their own, eats their
own meal. Someone man goes hungry and
another man gets drunk. I would think that's a problem.
This is not good. And so Paul is rebuking them and
he says, do you not have houses to eat and drink in or do you
despise the Church of God and humiliate those who have
nothing? Are you opening those who don't
have anything to bring to the table to shame because you're
not sharing with them? It's all about you.
You're bringing your own thing and you're just going to Burrow
through this thing. And this is I'm having
communion. It's me and Jesus.
And what Paul is saying is, listen, if you only have this
and you don't have this, then this closes.
If you're crying out for an open heaven, but you have a closed
heart towards your brothers and sisters, then the heavens will
close. And there are many applications
of this. Just one is that very, very,
very troubling verse to us as husbands.
First Peter chapter 1, is it chapter 4 where it says
husbands, dwell with your wives according to knowledge that your
prayers may be heard. Now that should trouble every
husband in this room. Dwell with your wife according
to knowledge. In other words, make one of the
primary pursuits of your life figuring that human being in a
female form, which is such a mystery.
The very thing that drew us to her is now frustrates us about
her because we don't understand her.
I've told you this before, but I've got a book in my office.
I've got thousands of books and I've got one.
It's it says what men know about women.
It's about this big, it's about this thick.
You open up and it's blank. And what men know about women,
they are a mystery. But he says, husbands, dwell
with your wife according to knowledge.
Get to know her, get to understand her, get to
understand what she really means when she says such and such.
And there's nuances to the the female psyche I can feel
getting, I'm getting on thin ice now.
Let's just say that women are a mystery.
That's why we love you ladies, but we don't understand you.
And part of what God is doing is he's drawn us into marriage.
Let me put it this way. Marriage is one of God's primary
discipleship plans. The reason it's not good for a
man to be alone is because very few men can ever become what
they're called to be without a woman by their side, without a
woman imposing upon them. They're imposing and saying, I
need you to produce. I need you to step up and be the
man God you made you to be. And very few of us will be that
without a woman putting demands on us.
And the fact is, ladies, it's not good for a woman to be alone
either. But the Bible doesn't say that.
I'm saying that, but I'm telling you it's true.
But it's not as true as men. Women fare better single than
men do. And so we need that imposition.
And so and, and the fact is, in general, we as believers, we
need one another. There are things in you that God
will never get out of you without other people putting a
demand upon you. There are problems that you have
you will never recognize outside of relationship.
It's the context of relationship that brings those to the
surface. I've often said I, I was a very
patient man. I had no anger problem till I
got married. And so it must have been my
wife's fault because I I was a very patient person till I
married her because no, there was no one to put that demand on
me in my free time. I had all this time.
It was all about Dave come home at night, close the door and it
just indulge in me. I'd, I'd I'd spent, I could
spend hours with the Lord in the middle of the night.
It was glorious. And then I had a wife and that
was harder. And then you have babies.
If you do a God's ways, you get a spouse and then he kills off
the rest with children. You know what he starts with a
spouse. You'll just finish off with
children because at least your spouse, you can reason with them
a little bit. A crying baby, there's no
reasoning with it. It'll bring it up out of your
heart. You got to face it.
I'm I'm only half joking. OK, so relationships are very,
very important. And so this whole thing about
communion, when you come together, are we coming together
with other believers? If your Christian experience is
looking at the part in the hair in front of the person of the
person in front of you every Sunday, then you need to avail
yourself to the body of Christ so you can grow because you have
sentenced yourself to an immature expression of
Christianity. If this is your Christian
experience, listen to a talking head on a platform and looking
at someone's head. And so we need to have
relationships because there are things in US we'll never good
and bad that will never come out outside of relationship.
There's things that God wants to show you that you'll never see
in the word on your own. He's going to show you it
through someone else. The fullness of Christ is the
body of Christ, Paul says in Ephesians a couple of times.
The fullness of Christ is a body of Christ and you have a limited
expression on your own and the only way to access the rest is
to join the body of Christ. And that body of Christ will
have people in there that irritate you and rightly so.
And sometimes the people you need the most are the people
that you don't want to be around.
You want to be around the least. Years ago when I worked for Teen
Challenge, we, we had started a family program.
So we took men and women and whole families, kids and had
them on campus and we were discipling them there.
You know, they had drug issues and you know, just life
controlling problems. And let me just say that was a
hoot. Now the whole family, let me
just say that we stopped doing that.
It was, it was a challenge. It was only one other center in
the nation that did it, and that was one out in Texas.
And so we had the the director come in one time and they had
this, you know, all these families living on this campus
together. And I'll never forget out of
this passage, he preached a message with three points.
And I can still remember what they were.
This was 30 years ago at least. Covenant conflict, communion.
Here's the point. God enters us into covenant with
him. And in covenant with Him, we
enter into covenant with one another.
When I am wed to Jesus, he is the head and you are the body.
And it's a package deal. I can't have a relationship with
Him and reject you. You can't do that with human
beings. I really appreciate your face,
but your body, not so much. You won't have much of a
relationship with that person, and so it's a package deal.
So God enters us into covenant knowing that these different
people that we're in covenant with is going to create
conflict. I remember during that season, I
looked across the room and there were two Teen Challenge students
arguing with each other. And I, I was just laughing
inside. One was a big, old, tall cowboy
from California, and the other was a dead head from Nebraska.
Now you know what a dead head is.
It was his claim to fame was that he had gone to over 100
Grateful Dead concerts. Daddy, he was a hippie man.
He was a he was a leftover from the he was younger than me, but
he was he was born about 30 years too soon.
And so when Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead died, he wore a a
suit three days in mourning and finally we said, lose the suit.
Dude, this is dysfunctional He. But part of what really tickled
me was that you would have thought the dead head was be
from California and the cowboy from western Nebraska.
But no, they were. These two guys would have never
hung out together. The only reason they even talked
with each other was because they had a common union, Jesus.
So covenant bound them together and they irritated the snot out
of each other and I just had to get me tickled thinking man
these guys would have never talked to each other outside of
Jesus. This is hilarious and and the
fact is some of us are the same way.
We just, we would not have anything in common outside of
Jesus. Most of you would not have
wanted to hang out with me before Jesus.
You sure would not let your kids hang out with me.
But here we are, and what we have in common is Jesus, and
there's so much forfeited if we only hang out in our little echo
Chamber of what we would choose. So Jesus pulls them from every
tongue and tribe and background. And there's something really
healthy about a church having all these different demographics
and different ways. And you begin to rub shoulders
and you see things in the kaleidoscope of God's creativity
that you'd have never saw on your own.
It's beautiful, it's awesome, and it's irritating.
So covenant will lead to conflict.
And then in the midst of the conflict, the communion cup
comes down the aisle and we've got to examine ourselves.
Are we recognizing the body? So I would add a fourth T
covenant conflict. Communion is what will produce
character. So communion in a very real
sense is like the, it's like the pit stop on the race of life.
We pull in and we got to examine some things and look at, hey,
are you OK with other people? Is there anybody you need to
forgive? Is there anybody you need to
really begin to pray for because they're irritating you?
Is there somebody that God is wanting you to get close to that
you're not? And is that an indication of
something in you that God's wanting to get at?
Much of what God does in our life is through human
relationships. We like to over spiritualize
things. And oh, I just, no, I soak for
hours alone. Yeah.
And there are things that are in you that God wants out of you,
both good and bad, that will never come out of you without
you getting around other people. And they'll put a demand on you
and they'll, they'll frustrate you and inspire you and you'll
become all that God called you to be.
And so we're very limited on our own.
And so Paul says, when you come together, when you come
together.
So to be honest, I don't remember what I preached, what
I've said thus far, what I said the first service.
So if I repeat myself, I'm just a little tired this morning.
So you don't have to be worried that that's that felt heavy.
I mean, look, so he says for in eating each one goes ahead with
his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets
drunk. What don't you have houses to
eat in? He says, can I commend you in
this? No.
And then he says this verse 23 for I received from the Lord
what I also delivered to you. He's referring back.
He said the instructions that he was going to give this, these
are them. But he says, this is Paul's
little way of saying, and I already told you guys this
before, I've already addressed this with you before.
He said what I received from the Lord and what I also delivered
to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night he was betrayed, took
bread. And that's really where we want
to focus this morning. It's such a beautiful phrase.
The timing of this thing is very, very important.
Paul said, Paul didn't just say, yeah, Jesus Institute of
Communion, and he took some bread and he broke it.
He said on the night he was betrayed, he took bread.
The whole idea of breaking bread has taken on a life of its own.
It's a euphemism that we use. It's it's used by secular people
that don't even realize it comes from this passage.
But the idea is that when we're breaking bread, we're entering
into relationship. We're reconciling, hey, let's
break bread. And people that don't even know
the Lord will use that terminology because it's become
so embedded in Western culture. But that's what it meant so much
so that Paul said if there's a brother that claims to know
Jesus is walking with the Lord but is living in stubborn sin.
In particular, he's saying in sexual sin in first Corinthians
and he unrepentant sexual sin and he doesn't want to hear it,
doesn't want to won't won't be confronted acts like
everything's OK Paul said don't even eat with him because in
eating with him, you're coming into agreement.
There's something about food that is communal.
There's something relational about breaking bread to with one
another. And so when when Paul mentions
this, he said Jesus on the night he was betrayed, broke bread.
Now we see what God and let me just pause here.
This is so fascinating to me and I know I've mentioned this
before, but I I want to make sure this doesn't escape us that
Paul was not there. Paul was not a follower of Jesus
in Jesus earthly ministry. Paul called himself one born out
of season. The other disciples were with
Jesus. Paul was not.
But Paul said I received this from the Lord.
Paul didn't hear the second hand.
The Lord Jesus Christ thought this was so very important for
us to understand that he dropped in with Paul and said, Paul, I
need to bring you in on something that I instituted at
the end of my earthly ministry before I launched my church.
And he gets this download. We don't know how that happened.
We don't know if it was a vision, a dream, whatever, but
he said what I received from the Lord and I gave to you guys
before and that should highlight to you and I the the, the
essential nature of the principle Paul is getting AT and
the that that is summed up in this prophetic act called
communion. This is very, very important.
And he said that I got it from the Lord on the night that he
was betrayed, he broke bread. Now, Paul doesn't tell us this,
but if we cross reference it for the Gospels that tell this
story, we know that Judas was at the table and Jesus is breaking
bread. And he said, and the one who
will betray me is around this table.
And all of them are saying, you think it's me?
Is it you? Is it me?
And you know what? That's a very healthy thing.
It's unhealthy when you say, yeah, I know which one it is.
Yeah, I bet it's so and so that's unhealthy.
But they were all searching the heart.
Lord, would it be me? Lord, are you seeing something
in me? There was a humility there that
they understood their capability.
And we say, well, Pastor, that's that's just walking and
unbelief. No, Peter, the one that was most
self confident that he wouldn't betray him did.
And so we, we need to realize that every one of us are, have
the capability of walking away from the Lord.
We really do. And so Paul says on the night he
was betrayed, the gospels tell us that they Jesus said, hey,
the one who's going to betray me, he's around the table and he
dips the bread in the aju and hands it to Judas.
They're all wondered, is it me? Is it me?
And he says what you're going to do do quickly.
It was a preemptive strike against the bitterness of
betrayal. He said I'm I'm already breaking
bread with you. I'm I'm taking a preemptive
strike. I'm on the front end.
I'm already posturing my heart. If you betray me, I'm staying in
covenant with you. I'm I'm as as much as it is on
my ability. I'm going to walk in forgiveness
towards you. Let's turn really quick.
We got to someone pray that time would stand still like Joseph
Joshua did rather. OK, let's look at Psalm Psalm
55. I'm trying to get there and my
computer doesn't want to cooperate.
Psalm 55. I want to just read you a couple
verses here. This is an interesting Psalm,
Psalm 55. It says it's a it's a Psalm of
David. Give ear to my prayer, O God,
hide not yourself from my plea. Now remember, we've been looking
at the Psalms and the Psalms are not just poetry.
This isn't this isn't Dave David just being poetic.
He's talking about his gut level, heart wrenching
experiences. He says attend to me, answer my
prayers. I'm restless, my complaint and I
moan because of the noise of my enemy, because of the oppression
of the wicked, for they drop trouble upon me and anger.
They bear a grudge against me. My heart is in anguish within
me. The tears of death have fallen
upon me. David's not just using flowery
language, he's living this thing.
This is accurate description of his situation.
He says in verse 6, I would, if I had the wings of a dove, I'd
fly away and be at rest. Yes, I would wander far away.
I would lodge. I would lodge in the wilderness.
He's longing for that retreat away from his problems.
Well, what's going on here? Look at verse 12.
For it is not an enemy who taunts me, then I could bear it.
It is not an adversary who deals insolent with, insolently with
me. Then I could hide from it.
But it is you, a man, my equal, my companion, my familiar
friend. We used to take sweet counsel
together within God's house. We walked in the throng.
David's talking about a deep betrayal from a former friend, a
friend who has become an enemy. Have you ever had that?
Don't raise your hand and don't look around the room.
Have you ever had that happened? One of the deepest, most painful
things that can ever happen is to have somebody that you trust
and to whom you've entrusted your heart turn on you and that
relationship disintegrate. And it's not, it's not that,
well, we're just, we just, you know, kind of grew out of each
other. But now there's an antagonism
and a, an adversarial kind of relationship.
And, you know, they're talking about you and they're, they're
saying things and maybe you're talking about them and you're
being tempted to say things about them.
And it's one of the most painful things.
Look at verse 20. My companion stretched out his
hand against his friends. He violated his covenant.
So now David's giving us a little more insight into the
scenario. It's not just him, but it's a
guy. He and his buddies are running
with some dude. And now this dude is turned on
them. And he's trying.
He's intentionally trying to cause them pain.
And David is hurting in his heart.
He violated covenant. His speech was smooth as butter,
yet war was in his heart. His words were softer than oil,
yet they were drawn swords. And you could make a case for
this being a messianic Psalm of Jesus betrayal.
But make no mistake about it, David was speaking out of his
own personal experience. Because that is the human
condition. Those things happen.
It's one of the hardest tests for us to go through and
communion is put in place for these types of scenarios so that
we keep our heart clean because Scripture is very clear.
Paul said, I want to say it's in Romans 12.
He said if you are, if you bring well, this, this is in the
Gospels. He says if you bring your gift
to the Lord and somebody has ought against you, leave it
there and go make make amends. Or if you have ought with the
brothers, someone has something against you or you have someone
against something against someone else, go and make it
right. I don't know if I told you I'm
telling you I'm having a hard time this morning, but when I
first got married, I was my wife and I were arguing.
I'm sure it was my fault, and I'm sure it was the stupidest
thing. You wouldn't believe the dumb
things. We most of our arguments when we
first got married were about doctrine.
Bible doctrine. Yeah.
That was so silly. You know, we're going to argue
about doctrine. It was so crazy, but we were in
an argument and I was mad. So I said I'm just going to go
down to my office and spend time with the Lord.
And I got down there and I closed the door behind me and
I'm telling you, I heard from God so clearly.
And this is what he told me. He said I'm honest to God.
He said, I don't want to hear it.
Go back and make things right with your wife.
He didn't want to spend time with me.
He didn't want this going on until this was going on.
And we can fool ourselves when we have ought against a brother
and we every time their name comes up, it's just like a
grinding and we're we're we. And when their their name is
brought up with others, we maybe we slander them or maybe we do
the spiritual way. Oh, well, I've had well, I won't
mention what my experiences were because I don't want to gossip.
You raise your eyebrows in a holy way.
I don't want to shade their reputation or lack thereof.
O, let's just leave it there. You already did it.
And we've got to be so careful because I'm telling you this
means everything to God that we've got to deal with this.
And this is what communion is for.
It's to deal. This is 1 facet of communion, to
deal with this in order for us to have this.
It is not a coincidence that the Moravians, the great modern
missions movement that was launched in the earth, it
started with a bunch of Moravians that were refugees.
They found shelter on the compound of Count Zinzendorf,
but they were just always arguing and mad at each other.
And he's ringing his hands thinking, these people that
God's given me to take care of, they're nuts.
They're always fighting. And they had communion.
And what happened was they said we received a baptism of love.
And there were two things that were launched.
The longest prayer meeting in human history, 100 years of
unceasing prayer and the modern missions movement.
Both of them came out of communion in getting things
right. They're God give us the nations.
How about dealing with your neighbor 1st.
And when they dealt with this, this thing opened up and it, I
mean, the, the, the stories about the Moravians are amazing,
but we can cry out. I'm telling you, God opened the
heavens and God said open your heart.
What is it in, in the when it talks about Noah and the flood,
it says the deeps opened up and then the heavens opened up and
poured out the rain. We can cry out for an open
heaven, but first we need to break up the deeps.
We need to have a broken heart for one another.
So be careful, keep clean slate when when that stuff starts to
try to take root, then what I know for me, what I've got to do
and God has broken my heart over this.
He's broken my heart and he's told me you there are things
there's things that I see that they don't see and I guarantee
you there's things they see that I don't see, but I want to judge
them by the standard that I have because I see something clearly
and usually the reason I see it because it was done against me.
So I see that clearly and then I want to impose upon them the
clarity that I have on that given matter and I want to judge
them by it when they're not even seeing it.
They what did Jesus say? You know, they know not what
they do. Father, forgive them.
They're blinded. And so we've got to pray.
And I know when those things rise up, I've got to pray.
God. Lord, I ask you, just bless
them. Lord, I ask that you would visit
them in their quiet time. You're thinking, Pastor, you
really have to do that. Oh, yeah.
We've all had people stab us in the back, but they don't know
what they're doing. Hurt people.
Hurt people and we've got to go low.
And this I'm telling you, intercession for the nation's
international, intercession for revival, intercession for
breakthrough in our family. A lot of that is done at that
level, just going low and dealing with those things,
allowing the Lord to have all the ground of our hearts so that
he can begin to gain ground out there.
But we can forfeit the victory in these bigger things that to
us are the the big ticket items, but to God it's relational.
Are we dealing with these things?
So let's look here. Listen to what he says.
He says on the night when he was betrayed, he 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.
And the same way he also took the cup 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 it.
Often as you eat the bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the
Lord's death until he comes. There is a proclamation of the
gospel in what we're about to do.
But if your life is contradicting, if the gospel of
reconciliation that you are proclaiming with this act is
contradicted by the way you live, your actions cancel out
what your mouth speaks. That old thing that we say,
actions speak louder than words. It's true.
So it look at verse 7. Whoever eats the bread and
drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty
concerning the body and the blood of the Lord.
Unworthy means it. It has to do with scales that
you're not giving the weight to this matter that you need
literally, it means to to not put weight to to the weightiness
of the sacrifice of Jesus needs to be met with the weightiness
of our value in appreciating what he did and in light of
that, reconciling ourselves to others, realizing I've been
forgiven so much, I'm going to forgive.
Nobody owes me anything and living with a clean heart and I
know that listen, I'm your pastor.
I hear all kinds of stories. I know that some of you are in
situations right now that you have done everything you can to
live in unity with that person. It's not like you can leave this
gift at the altar and worship this morning and and if you
would just go talk to them, you they'd reconcile.
There are people that are absolutely unwilling.
They're so blinded and hardened in their heart, they can't
receive. Paul says in Romans 12 he said
do everything that's in your power but once, once it's on
them, then you're clean. But just keep your heart clean.
Don't wish them. I'll don't pray them well.
Keep your heart. Don't let any of that take root.
Hebrews chapter 12 warns against a bitter root that will defile
many. The picture is this, that there
are there's root systems and he's talking about this
underwater water or underground water system and there's wells
that we draw water from them. But if you get a bitter root
that gets into that water, it will taint the taste of that
water so that everybody that drinks from the well of your
spirit will taste that. It's like, what is that?
It's like I always there's this negativity, this, this
sarcastic, just this expectation of the wrong man.
We don't want that. I want when you drink from my
well, that. Oh, man, that's refreshing.
That guy, he's so positive. He must be blind.
Look at, look at. He's overlooking everything.
I'd rather live in that head. Call me naive.
Hallelujah. I want to be free.
One's man's naivety is another man's freedom.
One man's realism is heaven's negativity.
I'm just a realist now. Listen, Bless and do not curse.
Don't let a bitter root defile many.
Keep your heart clean. Pray for those who have done
evil against you. Bless and do not curse.
Do it for yourself. Do it for your family.
Do it for the one God wants to move us.
There's a progression of this thing at one time.
We want to take that before the throne.
You see this in David's Falls, by the way.
Lord, kill him. David's just working through his
pain. He doesn't end with that, OK,
But he, he often starts there. And we, we're the prosecuting
attorney. We want to bring their sins
before God. God, look what they did.
If that's where you're at, the best place to do that is getting
God's presence. Don't do it with your neighbor.
If they are neither part of the problem or part of the solution,
it's none of their business. Don't pollute them with it.
It's a good definition of gossip.
I didn't come up with that. I heard it years ago.
But if someone's neither part of the problem or part of the
solution, then don't share it with them.
Get with the Lord and vent. David.
David did. Just don't end there.
We want to go from being the prosecuting attorney to the one
who says, I, I withdraw my case, I forgive.
But God wants to take us beyond that where we actually, as an
intercessor, become the defense attorney and we begin to bring
them before the throne. God, they are the one that needs
rescued. Lord, they don't realize what
they're doing. Lord, I'm free.
You've you've given me freedom. Lord, I want them to know that
kind of freedom. Not so they'll grovel back and
say they're sorry, but so they can really be free.
They're in danger when they live with that, that kind of posture.
And so, Lord, let me be an intercessor for those who have,
you know, had I'll intent. That's where true freedom is.
If you can really do that. And I'm telling you it's
possible by the grace of God and communion is the pause, the
little pit stop where we examine and think, Oh better tighten
those tires up because your your wheels are going to come off.
OK. So listen what he says.
Let a person examine himself them.
And this is verse 28. So eat of the bread and drink of
the cup for anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the
body eats and drinks. Judge among himself.
He doesn't say discerning the blood.
He doesn't say discerning the cup.
He says discerning the body. Why Paul is always speaking on
many levels. The body is the bread, but the
body is the broken body that was crucified for you and I, but the
body is also. When you come together, are you
recognizing the unity that we need to be in, that we look and
we have no ill will in the room, no ill will outside this room,
But Lord we our life becomes a cry.
Lord, let everybody be reconciled to God.
Hold not their sin against them. You can't really pray that if
you're holding their sin against you, them.
So what does Paul say? That is why many are weak and
ill and some have died. This is very, very serious.
We can actually bring sickness on ourself by partaking of this
holy thing and not examining ourselves.
So what does Paul say in verse 31?
Go ahead and stand. So you know, I'm going to quit.
But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged.
But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that
we may not be condemned along with the world.
And that little verse, verse 31, he says if we judge ourself,
then we will not be we will not be judged when we are
disciplined. And why does God discipline us
so that we will not be condemned with the world?
There's three forms of judgment, Paul and Pax here.
Self judgment is called repentance that I'm going to say
God, Lord, I'm the guilty. 1 Lord, I'm asking Lord, shine
your light. Show me Lord, I have such a
propensity to justify my own behavior.
I need you to rescue me again and again and again.
Help me to see where I'm wrong. And repentance will keep us from
having to be entering into the second type of judgment that is
temporary judgment, which Paul says is the discipline of the
Lord. And you know the purpose that he
said so that you are not condemned with the world in
eternal judgment. So you want to miss eternal
judgment then enter into the temporary judgment.
And there's two ways to enter that by self evaluation and you
repent on your own. Otherwise what God will do.
Psalm 32 do not be like the horse or mule who must be
steered with bitten bridle. I would guide you with mine eye.
In other words, he said I'd rather be able to point these
things out to you. I want to lead you with a look.
We're face to face all the time and I look at you.
I'll give you that look. You know that look and you
respond, yes, Lord. Lord, what do you, what do you?
What's going on, Lord? I'm ready to lay it down.
You're Lord, I'm not. The other alternative is God
loves us enough that He'll discipline us.
He will lead us with pain. A horse or mule, they put an
iron rod in their mouth with two eye holes at the back, pull it
back towards the cheek flaps. And if you want to go right, you
cause great pain on the right side of that horse's mouth till
he starts going right and you want to go left, He'll cause
pain on the left side. And what God is saying is I love
you enough to lead you with pain, but I want to lead you
with a look. And if we respond to neither,
then we're in danger of the ultimate judgment.
That's what Paul's saying. So are we recognizing the body
of the Lord today? We are the body of Christ.
I don't have the luxury of saying I love Jesus, but I
reject his people there. It's a package deal.
I don't get him without getting you because much of what I get
of Him comes through you. And so let's take this in our
hand. I'm going to ask you to hold up
the the bread. We didn't get into the blood
today and we will if you need communion elements, just raise
your hand. We have them right here.
Sorry about that. I should have said that earlier,
but let's hold, hold the body, the the bread before the Lord.
Father, we thank you that you sent your Son Jesus.
We thank you that you took on human flesh and became one of
us. And Lord, we thank you that you
allowed yourself to be nailed to a tree, beaten and bruised and
tortured and mocked on our behalf.
And Lord, we thank you that we've now been made part of the
body of Christ. Thank you, Lord, the Lord we ask
to examine our hearts. Grace us to overcome our
justifications. Lord, if there's somebody we
need to forgive, grace us to forgive and establish that as a
permanent state of our heart. If there's someone we need to go
to, Lord, grace us to do so. There's somebody we need to
continue to pray for. Grace us to do so.
Lord, we thank you, Jesus. Let's receive the body.
In Jesus, we thank you for your blood.
She took on human flesh and faced every temptation on our
behalf. And once made perfect, you
became the source of eternal salvation.
We receive your blood this morning.
Now let me just pass to you for one more minute here.
Listen, if there's somebody that you have had secret bitterness
towards, you don't need to go to them and say I've really, I've
really been irritated with you. You've gotten on on my nerves
for a long time. But I want you to know I forgive
you and you just kind of bounce off and you're good.
But now they're kind of struggling.
You don't need to put that in their head.
If they know there's a breach in the relationship, then it may be
let the Lord lead you make make that right as much as is in your
ability to live at peace with all men, but don't do it at
their expense. Amen.
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