The Lord’s Supper: A Picture of Gospel Unity

0:50Are they on their phones? Are they arguing? Our family loves the movie The Incredibles. And one of our favorite scenes in that movie is early in the movie when they're all at the dinner table together. And this epic brawl breaks out between the superhero family, where you've got Mr. Incredible lifting up the table and Dash and Violet, the two older kids, going at it under the table. The baby is crying and the mom is just completely exasperated. And you have so much tension in this scene between Dash and Violet, the brother and the sister, between Dash and his mom, between Bob and Helen, the parents. It's just a picture. Of probably a lot of the meals that we have all shared around our family tables as well.

1:36Nothing brings out tension like a family meal. That's true at home, and it's true in the church as well. We've been going through 1 Corinthians chapter 11 the past couple of weeks, and in this section, Paul is talking about what is happening when the church gathers together in worship. And so last week we talked about head coverings and why those were important culturally for the Corinthian believers. Next week, as we get into chapter 12, we're going to be talking about the spiritual gifts and using those in worship. But today we're going to be talking about the Lord's Supper and how the church observes the Lord's Supper together when they gather for worship.

2:19And what we're going to learn this morning is that the Lord's Supper is a picture of our unity with God and with each other. If you take a look at verse 17 where this text begins, Paul has gone back on what he was saying before in verse 2. He was commending them because they had remembered him in all that they were doing. But here in verse 17, he says, but in the following instructions, I don't commend you. Why? Because when you come together, it is not for the better, but for the worse.

2:53What an astounding statement. Paul is saying that it would be better if the words were worthy of the words. church were not even meeting. That's how bad these things have gotten here. And why is that? It's because when they come together there are divisions in the church and not the kind of division that has to exist between believers and non-believers but divisions that appear to be along socio-economic lines. In other words between the rich and the poor, between the haves and the have-nots.

3:30So I want to explore the context a little bit more to remind you of where we're at in history and what's going on here in Corinth. See, in first century Corinth, this is a Greek city that, under Roman rule, was the capital of this province known as Achaia. And when Paul arrived here around AD 50, he shared the gospel in the synagogue as he usually did, but he was rejected there as they usually did as well. And so he went to the Gentiles and began preaching the gospel. Many of these Gentiles became believers, but they were also, like all of us, they were people of their culture. And as people of their culture in the first century Roman Empire, they were used to distinctions between the rich and the poor.

4:18And remember, in the earliest days of the church, no local churches had their own buildings. Instead, they met in believers' homes. And so usually what would happen is a wealthier member of the church Would offer his or her home as a place to meet for worship. But what was going on inside of those homes is what was upsetting Paul, because they were conducting themselves at these gatherings just the way that they would if this were an ordinary social dinner gathering in that culture.

4:50What was going on is that the wealthy seem to have been excluding the poorer members of the church from partaking in the fellowship meal before they enjoyed the Lord's Supper together. And they seem to have been doing this by eating and drinking right in front of the poorer members of the church who had nothing, which humiliated them. So when the church gathered, they were eating supper, but as Paul says in verse 20, it's not the Lord's supper that they're eating, because they've turned this time of unity into a time of division.

5:27Look at what Tom Schreiner wrote. He said, the actions toward the poor contradict the self-giving love celebrated in the supper. Hence, they are, in effect, despising what Jesus did in the breaking of his body and the shedding of his blood. Supper has been turned upside down so that it has become an occasion for selfish grasping instead of selfless giving. Now, obviously, this is not how things were supposed to be in the church. After all, in John 17, in what we call the high priestly prayer, Jesus prays over and over again for our unity as the body of Christ.

6:10He says in that section of Scripture that it is our unity and our love for one another that more than anything else is going to show the unbelieving world that we are his disciples. We are the people of God. And so that's why Paul, to say nothing of God himself, is so upset at the situation here in Corinth. It's because the Lord's Supper, of all things, is supposed to be a picture of our unity around the gospel of grace. So beginning in verse 23, Paul reminds them what the Lord's Supper is.

6:42And I want you to see that he really emphasizes that he received it from Jesus and then delivered it to them. Look at the great links that he goes to, starting in verse 23, to show them whose supper this is. Just follow along in verses 23 and 24. On the night that he was betrayed, he took bread. He gave thanks. He broke it. He said. He took the cup. He said. Each time this word he is written or implied, what Paul is doing is that he's demonstrating this is Jesus' supper. He instituted it, and so we must observe it the way that he commanded it to be observed.

7:30Friends, the Lord's Supper is not a man-made tradition. It is not as if an early church father or even Paul himself kind of came up with the Lord's Supper as a really powerful sermon illustration that just happened to stick for the last 2,000 years. That's not what this is. Jesus himself instituted this ordinance, and so we must observe it the way that he commanded it to be observed. That's why, over the years here at New Life, we have reformed our practice of observing the Lord's Supper from observing it monthly with Hawaiian bread and grape juice to observing it weekly with unleavened bread and wine. And that's because it's Jesus' supper. So he sets the date for the meal and he sets the menu. We don't have the authority to change that.

8:27And so the Lord's Supper rightly consists of broken bread representing Jesus' body that was broken for us, and wine, which represents his blood shed for us. And in instituting this supper, he was inaugurating the new covenant promised by God to his people in the Old Testament. Now, it seems clear in the New Testament that every time the church gathered, they observed the Lord's Supper together. But it is a historical fact that the church observed the Lord's Supper weekly in worship. For hundreds of years until that practice fell away in the Middle Ages.

9:05So, a major point of the Protestant reformers was to restore this practice of weekly observance of the Lord's Supper. And why is that? Not only because it seems to be the New Testament model, not only because it was the historic practice of the church, but because of what the Lord's Supper communicates. Look at verse 25. Jesus says, 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.

9:50So, church, every time we take the Lord's Supper together, we are remembering Christ's life and death and resurrection on our behalf. It is a tangible and sensory reminder of the costly death of Jesus, his body broken, and his blood poured out for our sins. And every time we take the Lord's Supper together, we are proclaiming Christ's death until he returns again. It is a declaration to everyone, including those who gather with us on a regular basis who are not yet believers. It is a declaration to everyone that Jesus did live, he did die, he did. Rise again, and he's going to return one day to host the wedding supper of the Lamb that we read about in Revelation 19.

10:42So, when we take the Lord's Supper together, what we're doing is we are remembering or preserving the gospel and we are proclaiming the gospel. And so, taking the Lord's Supper together is one of the best ways for us as a church to live out our mission statement of preserving and proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ to make mature disciples of all nations for the glory of God. And if we're preserving and proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ when we take the supper, then friends, what Paul is telling us here is that the way that we take it has to reflect our belief in the gospel.

11:28You see, that was the problem here in Corinth. They were undoing with their actions what they were proclaiming with their lips. Look at Galatians 3. Paul says, For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. For the Corinthians, there was this disconnect between the truth of the gospel they said that they believed and the way that they were living their lives. Their behavior was totally acceptable in Greco-Roman society. Nobody would have thought twice about there being class distinctions that were lived out in a meal like the ones that they were having. In their minds, that wasn't just the way things were, it was the way things were supposed to be.

12:30But not in the church. Look at what Jim Hamilton said. To be specific, this behavior shames the church because rather than depicting the need common to all, the rich and poor, slave and master, male and female, Jew and Gentile, the need for the gospel that is proclaimed in the supper, the observance of what seemed to amount to class distinctions at the supper, enacts the socio-economic distinctions of the pagan Roman culture. This behavior of the Corinthians shows that their identity has not been reconfigured by the gospel.

13:13So remember back to Galatians 3. Everyone who has been baptized into Christ has put on Christ, so we are all one in Christ Jesus. The gospel unifies people from every ethnicity, every cultural background. Every social circle, and yes, every income level. So, our church life, Paul is saying, the Corinthians' church life has to reflect that truth that the gospel has united us all into one family of faith. So, he highlights the problem, and after Paul highlights the problem and reminds the Corinthians what the Lord's Supper is all about, he's now going to call them to repentance for their ungodly and sinful behavior. Look at verse 27: Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord.

14:25Now, the obvious and important question here is: what does it mean to take the Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner? Well, within the context of the chapter, the phrase must be understood narrowly as perpetuating division within the body of Christ. It has to be understood as perpetuating division within the body of Christ. That is how Paul introduced this whole section by saying that when they came together, it wasn't for the better, it was for the worse because they were divided.

15:01And specifically, as we highlighted, they were divided along these socioeconomic lines, the rich and the poor. And friends, I think that's still a major problem in the American church today. Here's what I mean. I certainly believe that within the American church, we deal with division along a lot of other lines. There are still churches that deal with division along cultural or racial lines. There are churches that deal with division on political lines. There are churches that deal with division along theological lines, secondary or even tertiary matters.

15:47But I believe that the biggest division in American churches today isn't racial or political or theological. I think the biggest division in American churches today is still socioeconomic. I still think the biggest division in our churches is the same problem that was being faced by the Corinthian church. I have seen many churches, including ours, embrace people who come from different cultural or racial backgrounds. I have seen churches, including ours, embrace people who come from different political viewpoints, who come from different theological viewpoints on secondary or tertiary matters.

16:31But, friends, I have also seen churches fail to welcome and embrace people who come in from different socioeconomic backgrounds. It seems to me that as long as a person walks into a church building dressed similarly as everyone else, coming from a similar educational background, coming from a similar lifestyle, most churches don't struggle to welcome that person no matter what color their skin is, no matter what political background they're coming from, no matter what they believe on secondary or tertiary issues.

17:11But if a person walks into a church building who is not dressed the same, who doesn't come from the same kind of educational background, who doesn't live a similar lifestyle, I have seen time and time again many churches, including ours, struggle to welcome that person, struggle to invite them in. And I think it's because it makes us uncomfortable. We gravitate towards people who look like us and live like us and have a similar background that we do.

17:51And this is what Paul is addressing here in 1 Corinthians 11. He's saying that we can't preach a gospel that says we're all sinful. Sinners in need of a Savior, we're all one through faith in Christ and then avoid people who come in from different socioeconomic classes into the church. People of the world love and pursue and associate with people who are just like them. But the people of God, those who have been redeemed by the blood of Christ, we are called to love and pursue and associate with people who are different than we are. Why?

18:37Because that is supernatural. It takes the supernatural grace of God for us to love and pursue and associate with people that we don't have anything in common with except for our trust and faith in the Savior Jesus. Jesus Himself said, Look, if you love those who love you, what are you doing more than others? Don't even the Gentiles do that? He said, There's nothing supernatural about loving people who are just like you. What is supernatural is when we love people who are different than we are.

19:19And to take it a step further, what this would mean is that we're walking in unity with everybody, everyone in the church, not just with people from different socioeconomic. Classes. It means that we're not harboring bitterness or resentment or unforgiveness toward anyone in the body of Christ. Look what Jesus said in Matthew 5. So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First, be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift.

20:01What this means is that we need to take care to reconcile with other members of the church when something recent or something in the past has caused division in our relationship. We can't simply ignore that. If there's anyone that you avoid in the body of Christ, you avert your eyes when they come into the room, you make it a point to sit far away from them. If you're out in the community and you were to see them, you turn your head, you go the other way. If there's anyone that you avoid, that's a pretty good sign that there's not reconciliation between you, that you're not at peace with one another. And Jesus says that we need to make that a priority. And we need to make it a priority, especially with one another. Look what we promise each other in the New Life Church Covenant.

20:55We agree to work and to pray for the unity of the Spirit in the world. The bond of peace. We will admonish those who are disobedient to the word, encourage the timid, help the weak, exercise patience toward all, and work for reconciliation. We will ask God for grace to speak, think, and act toward one another in love at all times. We don't want those to be empty promises, church. We want to make sure that we are living those out so that we are living out the spirit of the law of Christ as well as the letter.

21:38And so, narrowly, within the direct context of 1 Corinthians 11, taking the Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner is to take it while perpetuating division within the body of Christ. But more broadly, taking the Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner means that we have no unrepentant sin in our lives. And so, let's back up for a moment and get to the 30,000-foot view here. Who is eligible to take the Lord's Supper? Any baptized believer in Jesus Christ. That's what we say when we introduce the Lord's Supper every single week. When we receive Christ and the benefits of his sinless life, death, and resurrection by faith, the first command that we obey is the command that Peter issues to the crowd at Pentecost. Repent. And be baptized. Why?

22:34Because repentance is agreeing with God about our sin and turning away from it. It's saying that we will no longer submit to sin, but instead we will submit to Christ. And baptism symbolizes the fact that we were dead in our sins and that we were raised to walk in new life through faith in Christ, who defeated sin and death by his own resurrection from the dead. So every baptized believer is not only welcome, but commanded to come to the table and receive the supper. Why?

23:13Because the Lord's Supper is the ongoing reminder that Jesus' body was broken and his blood was shed for our sins, and we receive him by faith just as we receive the elements of the bread and the wine. But taking the Lord's Supper is an act of worship. And we cannot offer acceptable worship to God if we are living in unrepentant sin of any kind. Look at what God's word has to say about this. Psalm 66. If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. I want you to just reflect on those words for a moment. If I had cherished iniquity, falling in. Into temptation and loving sin are two different things, aren't they?

24:09If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. Look at Proverbs 28. If one turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination. Isaiah 59. Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.

24:48Taking the Lord's Supper in a worthy manner, it doesn't mean that we haven't sinned in the past week. If that were the case, nobody could take the Lord's Supper any week. And it also does not mean that we have confessed every single one of our sins before we come to the table. Because there are many times, I mean, I can at least speak for myself. I'm such a sinner that I don't even know all the ways that I sin in a given day or a given week. It would not be possible for us to confess every one of our sins. What it means, though, is that when we come to the table, we are coming in a spirit of repentance.

25:30faith. We're coming in a spirit of humility that says, God, I do not deserve your grace and your forgiveness, but I receive it through the person and work of Jesus Christ. I can come before you only because he is worthy, not because I am worthy. And so to summarize, taking the Lord's Supper in a worthy manner means that we are walking in unity and we have no unrepentant sin in our lives. But what if that's not the case? What if we're perpetuating disunity or we have unrepentant sin in our lives? Well, that's what Paul addresses in these next verses, 28 through 32.

26:17Here in verse 28, Paul commands us to examine ourselves before taking the bread and the wine. But what does he mean by these two phrases in verse 29, without discerning the body and eats and drinks judgment on himself? Those are tough phrases to understand. He says in verse 29, for anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself. Well, with that phrase discerning the body, Paul could mean discerning the body of Jesus, which is represented by the bread and the wine.

27:00In other words, you're not considering what the Lord's Supper represents. He could also be saying that discerning the body, what he means by that is you're not thinking about the unity that you're supposed to have and enjoy with other Christians. I think that Paul has both of those things in view here. Because by perpetuating class divisions in the church, they're acting as they're not all one in Christ through faith. They're not discerning the body of Jesus, which was broken and his blood was shed so that they could enjoy union with God and each other. And they're not living out the reality that they are unified with one another through faith. Again, look what Tom Schreiner says.

27:44Those who discriminate against other members of the congregation while eating and drinking of the elements do not discern the significance of Christ's death, nor do they perceive the unity of the body. Indeed, Christ by his death has made all believers one. So if it's true that Paul is saying that we need to remember Christ has united us to God and each other through his death, and that's what he means by discerning the body, then what does he mean by eats and drinks judgment on himself?

28:19Well, friends, we have to remember that this is the same man who wrote, therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. This is Paul. A true believer in Christ shouldn't fear judgment because Jesus bore our judgment on the cross. So let's let Paul explain his own meaning. In verse 30, take a look there, he says, that is why many of you are weak and ill and some have died. In other words, some of them are weak and ill and some have died because they've done this. They've taken the Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner. Look at verse 31. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. In other words, if you had taken the time to examine yourself, then you wouldn't be judged, but you failed to do that. As a result, what does he say in verse 32? But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.

29:29So, friends, there's your explanation. Believers undergo temporary discipline by God when we sin so that we will not ultimately be condemned eternally, just like the world will be. Perhaps the best passage on the discipline of the Lord is Hebrews 12. Take a look at that. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as somebody. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them. Kids, I just want to highlight those words.

30:34There's a great book, parents and fathers in particular. It's called Daddy Tried. Yes. Daddy tried. They disciplined us as it seemed best to them. But look at the father's discipline. But he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. No child wants to be disciplined. And that is also true for every child of God, isn't it? None of us wants to be disciplined. None of us wants to be weak or ill. None of us wants to die.

31:28But God loves us. And because he loves us, he's willing to discipline us for our good so that we may share in his holiness, so that we will turn from the sin that leads to death. That's what Paul is referring to here: to experiencing the discipline of the Lord because he loves us, because he doesn't want us to experience the eternal consequences of failing to repent. Church, God will defend the glory of his name, and that's why he's willing to discipline his own children who aren't telling the truth about the gospel through division or through unrepentant sin.

32:12Church, the Lord's Supper is one of Christ's greatest gifts to us. Every week when we take it, we are being reminded that we have communion with the God of the universe. What an amazing reality. And every week that we take it, the reason we take it together and not privately in our homes is because it is a reminder that we have communion with one another. You see, our fall into sin broke our relationship with the Lord, and it broke our relationships with each other. And in the Lord's Supper, we have a picture of the benefits of the gospel where we have. been reconciled to God through faith in Christ. And we have been reconciled to other people, our brothers and sisters in Christ, through faith in Him as well.

33:15David wrote this in Psalm 133. Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity. Being a part of a unified church is one of the greatest joys in the Christian life. If you've ever been a part of, or if you're a part of our church or another healthy church, then you know the joy of being on mission with other believers, sharing joys with other believers, bearing burdens with other believers, working side by side for the glory of God. Nothing in this life is more encouraging than being a part of a unified church.

34:01And it's also true that if you've ever been a part of a divided church, that nothing is more discouraging. When a church is marked by division and disunity and distrust, clicks and gossip, almost nothing in this life is more discouraging as a Christian. And so I want to close with an exhortation to three different groups of people today. First, If you're a member here at New Life, I want to encourage you to regularly pray for the unity of our church.

34:40I want to ask you to pray for the unity of our church because I think that as the years go by, we can just start to assume and to presume on the grace of God that things will always be unified because they always have been unified. And that's not necessarily the case. So I want to encourage you and ask you to pray for unity. And I want to challenge you to humble yourself and to go out of your way to acknowledge and welcome people who are different than you are. Different in age, different in economic background, different culturally, different ethnically than you.

35:26Reach across the line. Humble yourself. And make New Life a welcoming place for all kinds of people. If you're a visitor and maybe you've been coming for a while, maybe it's one of your first Sundays here, I want to encourage you to take the next step towards living in unity with other Christians. That might be going out these doors and picking up a card for one of our life groups and saying, I'm going to go this week.

36:00It might be getting online and signing up for our next round of membership classes. It might be staying five minutes longer after the worship service ends just to meet somebody, just to step out in faith and to introduce yourself and to make yourself known. Whatever that next step is for you, I want to encourage you to do it because being in a unified church is the greatest gift that you can experience as a believer, and I don't want you to miss out on that.

36:29And if you're not yet a follower of Christ, I want to encourage you to consider what you've heard today and what you're about to see demonstrated in the Lord's Supper and what it represents. That our sin against God was so serious that it required the brutal death of God's only begotten Son. That our sin was so serious that his body had to be broken, his blood had to be poured out so that we could be forgiven.

37:06I don't want you to believe the lie that your sin is no big deal and that you can overcome it by trying harder to be a better person. I also don't want you to believe the lie that your sin is beyond forgiveness, that there's no way for you to be forgiven because you've done too many evil and wicked things. Jesus promises to receive all who come to him by faith. And so, I exhort you, I encourage you today: don't leave without placing your faith in Christ.

37:39I hope that as we reflect on this text again, that all of us, wherever we're at today, will have a fresh appreciation for the Lord's Supper and what it represents. It's a picture of our unity with God and with each other. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for sending your Son to do what we could not and would not do, obeying you perfectly in every aspect of life. God, I pray now that as we participate in or observe the things that you have just taught us from your word, that you would fill our hearts with faith, and that you would fill our hearts with love for you and for one another.

38:49In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.