We continue to go verse by verse to 1 Corinthians. So we come today to 1 Corinthians 11, verse 17. I think after a few verses, you'll find this is a very, very familiar passage indeed. It's good to be able to look at it in a little bit broader context, going back to verse 17 and considering it a little more length than we normally do. So 1 Corinthians 11, reading from 17 to the end of the chapter, please give your attention to the word of God. 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. For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part, for there must be factions among you, in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. When you come together, it is not the Lord's Supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry. Another gets drunk. What? Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the Church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not. For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it. and said, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, also, we 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 as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. But a person examined himself then, and so he did the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. 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. So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, so that when you come together, it will not be for judgment. About the other things, I will give directions when I come." You know, it is not all about you. Easy to say. It's not all about you. And then, really hard to do. It's really hard to stop making it all about you. And you know, we really have no excuse. If a drowning man desperately will grab at anything to keep from drowning, we understand he's drowning. If a starving person steals some bread, we understand she's starving. But when we make it all about ourselves, we have no excuse. We have air, we have water, we have everything we need. for us to make it all about ourselves is nothing other than sin. Remember, the sin divides us, divides us from God, divides us from each other. Jesus came to unite. Jesus came to unite God and man, and person in person. And Jesus does this far more, and he has far more power to do it than any other person. Maybe other people want to hold themselves out and says, come, I will unite you. I am the politician. I am the teacher. I'm the philosopher. I will unite you. But no one can come close to the work of Jesus Christ because no one else is both God and man. It himself. No one else is this person. And no one else was sent into the world so as to unite us and God and unite us and each other. And in the Lord's Supper, the Lord's Supper displays that work of reconciliation. Which is why the devil attacks it. All through church history up to the present time, we see all kinds of arguments and fights about the Lord's Supper. Some of them profound, some of them stupid, some of them bloody. Our job is to protect and cherish it. Because in the supper, the work of reconciliation Jesus' work is made clear to us. So the burden of this passage is this, when you come together for the Lord's Supper, remember the Lord and honor the Lord's people. Paul in this section now, he's addressing how the church worships. You may recall when he began the letter, the first thing he had to say was, stop being so divided. Stop saying that you follow me and you follow Apollos and you follow Peter. He said, Jesus died for you, nobody else. And as he spoke to them about the divisions, he said, stop valuing the world's wisdom so much. You've got to focus on the cross of Christ. Did you know that Jesus, by his cross, has made us a temple of the Holy Spirit? That's chapters one to four. And because we're temples of the Holy Spirit, that leads him right into, so there could be no sexual immorality among you. So that's chapter five and six. And in seven, he goes on to the proper use of the body in marriage. And the third, because there were Christians among pagans. There weren't many, much food for sale that came out of a pagan temple. It was complicated. So he worked his way through different issues. But the first thing he said about that was, stop making it all about you. Stop thinking, well, I have the right to this and the right to that. He said, no, no, no. Make it about your brother and about unity, not about you and your rights. He gave us a strong warning, beginning to speak at the Lord's Supper. He said, you cannot be united to the Lord at the Lord's Supper and to demons in some pagan ritual. You could not drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. Having guided them through different food situations, he wrapped it up and said, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. So those are the main themes he's worked through up to this point in the letter. And as we hit chapter 11, now he has to talk about the church's worship. And that'll be chapters 11, 12, and 14, with a discursus in 13. As Hunter preached last week, first he talked about how to dress in worship, at least if you are husband and wife, among those who might be leading in the service before the New Testament was completed. His concern was honor and glory. It needs to go in the right direction. It needs to go to the right people. And now he comes to the Lord's Supper. And that's good. Because in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, we see that Jesus told us to celebrate the Lord's Supper, and then the Gospels move swiftly on to the next topic. But the Corinthians, you might say they did us a service by sinning so egregiously that the apostle had to write scripture for us to correct them and to teach us the things that we need to know. Now, how are they sinning egregiously? Well, it just pops right out of what he talks about. Verse 18, there's divisions among you. He says, I believe it in part, to kind of leave it open, whether he's believing everything. He says, eh, but I'm sure there are factions. He's a little sarcastic with him. You've got to have factions, because only some of you are genuine. Oof. All right. He says, OK, for first sin, you have divisions. And you know, that's pretty bad division when it divides how you eat the Lord's Supper. I mean, that's taking your divisions pretty far. You can't even paper them over during a meal. So first, we have the reemergence of the factions that he began the whole letter with. Secondly, they weren't necessarily even waiting for each other. We don't know what the protocol was, but clearly that's not respectful, waiting to eat this Lord's Supper together. Thirdly, they weren't even making sure that everybody got something to eat. Somebody goes hungry. This is getting worse and worse. And fourth, somebody's getting drunk. As I said back in chapter 5 and 6, drunkards will not inherit the kingdom of God. And again, here we are, not even hiding the sin, getting drunk at the Lord's Supper. You can see how indignant he is. You can begin to count the question marks, the exclamation points. What? Don't you have a house to go eat in? And then he pivots, verse 23. And it's like he gets quiet. You have no more exclamation points, no more question marks. Because as it comes to the Lord's Supper, he says, this is something to be quiet and reverent about. When you come together for the Lord's Supper, remember the Lord. Remember, first of all, He says that this is not your invention, not something for you to play with. It's a tradition that was handed over to me and I handed it over to you. You are to keep it the way you got it. You are not to consult yourself about what you would like better. You are not to change it because that's your style. There is a tradition that started with the Lord Jesus on the night He was betrayed and you're to keep it the way that He said to keep it. Jesus started the Lord's Supper. on the night when He was handed over." It's actually a word that you get twice there in the Greek. Quick succession. What I delivered to you, delivered is handed over. That the Lord Jesus on the night when He was betrayed, betrayed is also handed over. You get the same word. The tradition was handed over, that on the night that Jesus was handed over, He took bread. The night He was handed over. He instituted the supper. Before he died, this was the last careful teaching time he had with his apostles. And this is what he taught them to do. It has the character of a last will and testament. That last thing somebody wants to tell you before they die, that's serious. If that's an important person to you, you remember that. Jesus rose again and spent more time with his disciples. So it proved not to be the last word, but it was what he said before he died. So it does have that character of a last will and testament. You have to remember this. Before he was handed over, you see it's translated betray. We think of Judas Iscariot. A man that he had chosen. A man that had eaten off of, you could say, his coattails for three years. A man that he had given authority to, to cast out demons and to preach the kingdom. This is the man who handed him over for a small sum. And on that night, Jesus sat down and he said, I have earnestly desired to eat the supper with you. What fortitude! How could he be so calm on the night he was to be betrayed? It was because he understood that as Judas handed him over, that was because another was handing him over. That is, if you take up the prophet, yes, Isaiah, and you turn to the chapter, yes, 53, and if you read it in the Greek, what word do you see twice? You see that he was handed over for our transgressions, verse 6. Isaiah 53, 12, his soul was handed over to death, and he was reckoned among the transgressors. What an extraordinary thing that God did to take the evil of man and catch it up and enlist it in His own divine plan of redemption. These are the things to consider as you come to the Lord's table. That the Lord Jesus, that night He took bread. With whom did He take bread? With twelve very ordinary men. Fishermen, a tax collector, a radical, a betrayer. Can you imagine the infinite distance between the Lord of the universe and these men? And yet he ate with them. And so how can any rich Corinthian think that a poor Corinthian is not good enough to eat with him? Have you considered the difference between the Lord of all and a person? And a rich person and a poor person? The one gap is infinite, the other microscopic. He took bread and he gave thanks. The night he's betrayed, he's giving thanks. Is he so resolute in giving thanks? And you're not resolute enough to wait for someone else to show up before you eat? And he broke the bread. Now, of course he broke the bread. That's what you did with that kind of loaf. Hard outer crust, soft interior, you gotta break it to give it out. But when he says, this is my body and breaks it, then that takes on a further significance. that we are to think of His own body being stabbed and scourged and nailed and dying. As the bread is ripped apart, we are to consider how He was stretched out and nailed down. When He says, this is a do this in remembrance of Me, how rightly should we remember Him? If there's ever a time when it's not about you, it would be at the Lord's Supper. when it is most certainly about the Lord Jesus. Because he wasn't even done. He took the cup and he said, this is a new covenant in my blood. How he weaves together the law and the prophets. Because in the passage that we should probably know better than we do, Exodus 24. God having given them the Ten Commandments and further laws, Moses had them all written in a book, and Moses read the book to the people, and the people said, all that the Lord has spoken, we will do. An oxen had been sacrificed, and the blood gathered up. And so Moses then took the blood, and he threw it on the people, and he said, behold, the blood of the covenant, which is made with you. And then the leaders went up Mount Sinai, and they saw God, and they ate and drank. Exodus 24. And here, Jesus says, we do it again, but on a higher level. Because here we have not the blood of oxen, not the blood of bulls or sheep, but the human blood of Jesus Christ. And we have not another covenant on par with the Mosaic, but a new covenant that was promised to the prophet Jeremiah, a superior covenant, because it is written on the heart. And in it, sacrifices are done away with, because he says, I will remember their sin no more. When you come to the Lord's Supper, you remember not just Jesus and what he suffered, but also the reasons and the effects, also the benefits and the beneficiaries. And the beneficiaries surround you as you eat the Lord's Supper. To remember, you have to do it repeatedly. And so he says, you proclaim it until he comes. It will be done. The church will celebrate the supper until Jesus returns. And you remember by picturing, and so picturing is a proclamation, that the Lord died for man so that we might be reconciled to God and to one another. Those that God reconciles to himself, he makes brothers, he makes one as they eat the same bread. So he says, when you come together for the Lord's Supper, honor the Lord by honoring the Lord's people. A quick side note. during the pandemic when we, for about three and a half months, were not meeting together in this building. The discussion, should we celebrate the Lord's supper over Zoom? We did not. If you want to know why not, I just want to point out something to you. In verse 17, it says, when you come together. And in verse 18, it says, when you come together. And in verse 20, it says, when you come together. And in verse 33 it says, when you come together to eat. In verse 34 it says so, that when you come together. Five come togethers in this discussion of the Lord's Supper. Your session believes that to be an integral part of the Lord's Supper that we must come together. So when we did come together, we once again ate the Lord's Supper. Now when we come together for the Lord's Supper, we're to honor the Lord by honoring the Lord's people. I'm talking now about that paragraph that begins, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. So we are rightly concerned not to eat in an unworthy manner, not to profane the Lord's body. So in our tradition, we often then focus on think before you come. Examine your life and your heart for sin before you come. That's eating in a worthy manner. when you prepare yourself before you come. And that's great. 2 Corinthians 13.5, examine yourself to see if you are in the faith. All that's very beneficial. But in the chapter, the unworthy eating he's talking about is not waiting for each other, it's eating in factions, it's getting drunk, it's not making sure everybody, somebody has some. It's not respecting other people who are around you. So focus your mind first in that direction. Are you divided from others? We'll then reconcile, as Jesus also says in the Sermon on the Mount. Are you disregarding a brother? Are you despising a sister? Well, let's consider this. Jesus died for this person. You are despising this person. You and Jesus do not appear to be on the same page. Who do you think is correct? So we have a built-in call. to change our attitude and to respect, yes, love one another. And he speaks of eating and drinking judgment if you do not discern the body. All right, what do you mean by discern the body? Well, he uses the word body in two different ways right here close to this. First, when he talks about Jesus handing over bread and saying, this is my body, which is for you, Well, first of all, we are to discern, you could say, Jesus Christ as the one represented by the bread. You're not to sit there and say, huh, gluten-free now, huh? True, never mind, all right? You're to say, okay, this is bread, but it represents Jesus. And I am to consider Jesus, both what He suffered for us and to what effect and to what purpose He suffered. to discern that this symbolizes Jesus Christ. And that's simply to think and compare this variant of bread to the previous. And secondly, you get to chapter 12, and he says, the body is one and has many members, and so are we. Back in chapter 10, verse 17, speaking of the Lord's Supper already, he said, because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all eat of the same bread. In chapter 11, of course, he's been concerned about our sins against others in the room with us. So the other body we are to discern is that other body of Christ, meaning the people of the Lord. We're to discern that these are the people for whom Jesus died. And they need the eye that we might be unified, person to person. This is the other body that we are to discern. Now the purpose of the Lord's Supper is to bless us. By this meal, we renew ourselves under the terms of the covenant. As we participate, it assures us that we are beneficiaries of Christ's sacrifice. For beneficiaries, we are adopted as His children. Our sins are forgiven. We are given the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We are blessed with eternal life. These are the benefits that Christ gives us. These are the benefits that are pictured to us, represented in the supper. That's the purpose. But covenant ceremonies do imply judgment on the faithless. That's not the purpose, but that can be the result. And so Paul here at the end of the chapter is both comforting. First, he's stern. You want to know why some of you are weak and sick and have died? Because you're behaving that badly at the Lord's Supper. that the Lord is bringing judgment on you because of your sins at the supper. That's how bad it is. And he brings comfort. He says, nonetheless, that's not the end. That wasn't condemnation, but that was discipline. The one who died has not gone to hell, we believe. He's got a temporal judgment of death. That was to wake the rest of you up. Wake you up to what? or their need to respect others at church. That's why he ends on such a simple note. So, this is a very, very simple ending. So, when you come together to eat, wait. And if you're hungry, eat at home. That is so simple, right? Like, very basic instructions about manners, really. And why does he start simple? Because the sin was simple. The sin was about rudely making it all about themselves and disrespecting other people. So the solution was simple, respect each other. Remember the Lord's Supper is about the Lord and his body. So when you come together for the Lord's Supper, remember the Lord and honor his people. Because Jesus came to bring us together, God and us, one person and another. And as we eat together, all throughout the world we know that eating together cements friendship, shows friendship, creates friendship. So the Lord's Supper pictures his work and strengthens our union. So when you come, be reminded of our oneness with the Lord, discern Jesus and what he suffered and accomplished. Lord's Supper also reminds and strengthens our oneness with each other. So examine yourself and get rid of the arrogance and the divisiveness and the disrespects and the resentments. Supper is not a time to fill your belly or to lord it over somebody else. It's a time to remember the Lord and how he brought repair for the world. Jesus came to unite us. So I implore you, be reconciled to God and with each other. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you gave us a simple ceremony, a simple meal, so that we would not be caught up in the meal. that we could be more easily caught up to you and caught up in you. Help us, Lord, as we celebrate the supper, to focus our minds on you and to come in all humility and in all love. Humility before you and humility before each other. But help us to have no divisions among us. Help us all, Lord, to come and to be genuine. Pray this in Christ's name. Amen.