And let us turn in God's Word to 1 Corinthians chapter 11, a very classic passage as we consider the Lord's Supper. We're looking at verse 17 through the end of the chapter as Paul has some fairly harsh words to say about how we partake of the Lord's Supper. He calls us very carefully to examine ourselves, to prepare. to partake of the Lord's Supper, and that there is danger in partaking of the Lord's Supper unworthily. Not my words, God's words. So let us read together from 1 Corinthians 11, verse 17 through the end of the chapter. Now in giving these instructions, I do not praise you, since you come together not for the better, but for the worse. For first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and in part, I believe it. For there must also be factions among you that those who are approved may be recognized among you. Therefore, when you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord's supper, For in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others, and one is hungry and another is drunk. What, do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I do not praise you. For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on 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. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same manner, he also took the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes. Therefore, whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this reason, many are sick or weak and sick among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord that we may not be condemned with the world. Therefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest you come together for judgment. And the rest I will set in order when I come. Thus far the reading of God's word, may he add his blessing to our consideration of it this morning. Brothers and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ, this is a major passage in Scripture speaking of the Lord's Supper and our conduct around the Lord's Supper. One of the ways in which we reference the Lord's Supper is the word communion. Communion speaks to our communion with God, but it speaks more powerfully to the communion which we have together as the body of Christ. We are all one body, for there is one bread. There is one Lord, there is one Spirit. We looked at that last week out of Ephesians. We are one body of Christ. And so as Paul speaks about the Lord's Supper. He speaks to two major aspects of preparation for the Lord's Supper. He speaks to the unity of the body. He talks about divisions within the church. He, in fact, speaks in a certain manner, talking about there may be necessary divisions. Verse 19, to show who are approved may be recognized among you. That's why we don't have communion with every church that claims the name of Christian Church. There are distinctions, there are differences. That's one of the reasons we do make a careful distinction to consider whether we should be have, visitors should have communion. But on the other hand, God calls us to unity, God calls us as the one body of Christ. And He reminds us of the central facts of what it means to be a believer. Of what it means to have salvation through faith in the broken body, in the shed blood of our Savior. And as I said, there were two things that he makes clear in preparation for the Lord's Supper. And the second of that is, we need to examine ourselves. Let a man, verse 28, examine himself and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. He says, he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner, eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. That we have to be careful to give the correct honor to what we are doing today. The Lord's Supper is not just something that should be a common thing we don't think about at all. We need to give the honor of what we are doing to it. To celebration of communion, to celebration of the Lord's Supper. That we need to consider ourselves, as the catechism reminds us, to consider our sins, and I think it's great to consider the Ten Commandments in preparation for this. To be reminded of our unworthiness and the judgment of God which we deserve. So that we will be driven to our knees before Almighty God for the only hope that we have, which is in Jesus Christ. And then as well, to be reminded that we are called to live in thanksgiving to God, based on that fact. So as we look at this passage of God's Word, God calls His people to partake of His table in the unity of Christ. As we look at this passage in verses 17 through 21, we see that partaking of the Lord's Supper in an individualistic fashion is not the Lord's Supper. In verses 23-26 we see that we are proclaiming unity in Christ through the Lord's Supper. And in verses 27-34 we are reminded of how to partake of the Lord's Supper in a worthy manner. So partaking of the Lord's Supper in an individualistic fashion is not the Lord's Supper, it's not communion. It's not about us as atomistic individuals. It is about the unity of the body of Christ. Brought about by the fact of Christ's offering on our behalf. Paul opens the passage by telling the Corinthians that there was a problem with how they were celebrating the Lord's Supper. Now perhaps you know, that the Corinthian church had gone above and beyond what we do here, that they were on top of having the Lord's Supper as a part of an element of worship, they were having what was called the agape feast. That they would have a feast involved with the Lord's Supper. And so they were trying to show the love which we have as Christians together, but it became a problem. It was not about what Paul reminds us of the institution of the Lord's Supper. It had become something different. And so he says, there are problems. And we have to understand, there can be problems with how we celebrate the Lord's Supper. And God says, this is a big issue. He says, verse 30, for this reason many are weak and sick among you and many sleep. Some people have died because of a failure to follow God's commands with regard to the Lord's Supper. He says, now in giving you these instructions, I do not praise you since you come together not for the better, but for the worse. Wow. And he talks, first of all, about divisions. There are dangers and there is a necessity, he says, at the same time for divisions. Verse 18, first of all, when you come together as the church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and in part, I believe it. Divisions within the church are a problem. Are we all united to Christ? As Paul says elsewhere in the first epistle to the Corinthians, he says, if I'm not a hand, but I'm a foot, does that make me not a part of Christ? If I'm an eye, but I'm not an ear, am I less useful? No, we all have our place in the body of Christ. And we need one another. Are we dividing from those who are our brothers and sisters in Christ? Are we creating divisions within our own church that we claim to believe the same thing? It is not okay. But on the other hand, he does speak to some level of divisions. And one of the things that makes me very sad in the modern church is that we are very splintered. And he says, there must also be factions among you, verse 19, that those who are approved may be recognized among you. There are those who are saying very, very different things when they talk about who Jesus is. There are those who are saying very, very different things by what they say about the Lord's Supper. And we have to be careful that we need to see what does God say in His Word. You know my passion that we be individually in the Bible. That we need to be reading it. Because it's not just what gets preached from the pulpit. We need to know, is this guy telling the truth up here? Because there are many, many, many churches that claim to be speaking for Christ, and are teaching, sadly, total lies about who He is and what He has done. And brothers and sisters, we ought not be then having the Lord's Supper in communion with those who are teaching those errors. Notice the purpose of these factions, that those who are approved may be recognized among you, so that we as individual Christians can see the difference. We ought to be wise enough and know God's Word well enough to tell the difference. And Paul then continues, selfish eating is not the Lord's Supper. What's the message here? What's the danger here? He says, therefore, because of what was identified before, based on that fact, it is not the Lord's Supper. As we said, we call the Lord's Supper communion. As we said, the Corinthians had gone above and beyond to have this agape feast. And yet God says, you're not eating the Lord's Supper. When you come together, verse 20, in one place, it is not to eat the Lord's Supper. These factions were demonstrated by them taking the Lord's Supper at different times, and one person eating much, even getting drunk, and another going hungry. The Lord's Supper is about communion. It's about the oneness of the body of Christ. It is about the fact that each one of us needs Christ to have offered Himself for us. His body broken for me. His blood shed for me. It's not just about the fact that it's out there. It is about the fact of my sins. And my unworthiness. And the only hope that I have happened on a cross 2,000 years ago at Golgotha. Thousands, even millions of people were crucified at the time of the Romans, but we believe that one of them was different, that one of them was the Son of God, crucified for us. And so as we partake of the Lord's Supper, One of the things I as a pastor, and I look at the little communion chunks of bread and a little cup of wine, and I say, man, I'd like a little bit more to chew on, a little bit more. But as I think about that, and as I think about what Paul is saying here, it's not a bad thing, because the Lord's Supper isn't about a meal. isn't about physical nourishment, the satisfying of my physical cravings. It's about the satisfying of what I need spiritually. I need Christ's body broken for me. I need Christ's blood shed for me. There's a place for a meal, he goes on to say, doesn't he? What? Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? There's a place for a meal. There's a place for a fellowship meal. But it is not a part of the celebration of the Lord's Supper directly. We ought not sit down in the middle of the worship service and have a meal. That's not the point here. The point is that we partake of Christ spiritually, as certainly as I receive from the hand of the minister, as certainly as I touch and taste, God gives us a sense experience of the body and the blood of our Savior broken for us, shed for us. He goes on to say, or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? If we think that it's just about me, he says, we are despising the church of God because this is communion. This is not just me. And he goes on to say then, what shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I do not praise you. So what are we doing in the Lord's Supper? Where does Paul go? He goes back, God sends Paul back to the institution of the Lord's Supper. Just of note, there are a lot of churches who don't use the institution of the Lord's Supper in the preparation for communion. We do. Because this is where God sends us. It's not about other words. It is about what God says about the matter. One of the Reformers puts it this way, these are visible words. You hear me preach Sunday morning, by Sunday morning, we read it in the Word of God. But God gives us this sense experience so that we can use our senses to see, to know that that blood of Christ was shed for me, that body of Christ was broken, so that we can remember to believe what God has done for us, what Jesus did for us. He says, verse 23, for I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you on the same night in which he was betrayed. Jesus took bread. Jesus took a part of the Passover. The cup of blessing which we bless, we read. He took bread. He broke it. He did not use the whole Passover. He used specific aspects to point us to what He was going to do. And what did He do? And when He had given thanks, He broke it. Now as I'm looking at this, that word hit me. Jesus is going to the cross the next day. But Jesus, in giving the Lord's supper to His disciples, started by praying in thanksgiving for what he was going to do the next day. The sufferings, the agony that he would suffer in his soul as well as his body on our behalf. He took bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, take eat, this is my body which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. He had given thanks, he broke it, a reminder of the brokenness of his body, and he pointed to them and he said, take, eat. This is my body which is broken for you. Now there are those who say that there is a physical presence in the Lord's Supper. How do we know that Jesus wasn't talking about a physical presence? He was standing there and said, this is my body. Doesn't take a rocket scientist or a biologist or whatever you want to put in there, right? This here is my body. It is a representation for us. But notice another thing that people do. This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. This do in remembrance of me. We are called in the Lord's supper to remember what Christ has done for us. We partake of Christ spiritually in the Lord's supper. That as often as we do this, we do it in remembrance of me. Now, people get uptight about as often as. We gotta do this often, right? That word often is in there. Does that tell you how often anything happens? I just used the same terminology, didn't I? As often as doesn't tell you when things happen. So if we celebrate Christmas once a year, as often as we celebrate Christmas, we put up a Christmas tree. Until you know how often we celebrate Christmas, you don't know how many times we have a Christmas tree, do you? And the same thing is true. People and churches celebrate the Lord's Supper Every Sunday. More often than not. Because somehow they think, and it becomes honestly a level of witchcraft. I'm going to force God to give me grace because I'm going to take the Lord's Supper so often. No, that's not what we're doing here. The Lord's Supper replaces the Old Testament feasts. It fulfills them. It points to what Christ has done fulfilling them. And how many Old Testament feasts did they have? 365? Three to four. And so it is wise and right for us to celebrate the Lord's Supper three to four times a year. We're called to celebrate that communion. If we do it more often, There's no time for the preaching of the Word. And the preaching of the Word is necessary to the celebration of the Lord's Supper. That's why when we do shut in communion, we have to have the preaching of the Word along with it. We have to have communion. We don't just hand the person a piece of bread and wine. The elders and I partake with them because we represent the church with them. We do communion. It is not just individuals. It's not just me and Jesus. It is a celebration of the communion which we have in Christ. He says, do this in remembrance of me. In the same manner, He also took the cup after supper saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. We have the same ideas there. This cup is the new covenant in my blood, the New Testament, the moving forward of the history of salvation. And the supper proclaims Christ's death. As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes. In celebrating the Lord's Supper, in celebrating communion, we are proclaiming Christ's death. The death of our Savior that is necessary for my sins. My sins put Christ on that cross. Yes, we can point to the Israelites, but my treason, I love that song, alas, my treason. Jesus hath undone thee. Not because I love my treason. but because I love my Savior. And so how do we partake? Based on the fact that we are called not to partake in an individualistic manner, that we're called not, or to listen to the institution of the Lord's Supper, not to forget that, how do we partake? Therefore, again, that idea based on, has just been said, God reminds us about the right things to do about in communion. Whoever eats and drinks this bread in an unworthy manner. Now what is an unworthy manner? We've talked about some of them, going back, partaking in a selfish, individualistic manner. He says in the next verse, let a man examine himself. In verses 30 through 32, we're told that we are to judge ourselves. that we, as a church, need to be careful about the Lord's Supper. This was a big deal at the time of the Reformation, and is honestly still a big deal, because it's a big deal according to God's Word, how we do the Lord's Supper. And we need to personally examine ourselves, as the Heidelberg Catechism says, to consider our sins, that we deserve eternal hell because of them. Do we consider that our only hope is in the life and death of Jesus Christ on our behalf? And do we desire and therefore plan to live a life of thanksgiving to God for that salvation? And in verse 29 there is a further information, not discerning the Lord's body. That we need to be careful as we partake of the Lord's Supper. This speaks to two aspects, by the way. The Lord's body as we consider what we're doing in the Lord's Supper, but also the church. That we need to be careful that we are as a part of the church partaking. We, by faith, are partaking of Christ spiritually. So much so that eating in an unworthy manner makes us guilty of the body and blood of Christ. And he goes on to say, eating and drinking, judgment to ourselves. This is not a light manner. We have to be careful about this. Notice the context earlier in the passage, verse 19, there are divisions so that we can realize which group is approved by God. We need to use our brains, we need to use our understanding of scripture to understand that there is a difference, an eternal difference between right teaching and false teaching here. The reformers were not quibbling about small things when they talked about the Lord's Supper. When we go through the Heidelberg Catechism and every kid that's going through it's going, oh great, the 70s again. They're important. God shows us that here. He who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner, eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. And God's chastening then on those who do not judge themselves. Verse 30. For this reason, many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep." There's an important comparison here for us to digest. God's chastening, which is in his love, can be pretty harsh. We read here that many sleep. That's a euphemism for death. because they were wrong about their theology of the Lord's Supper? It's what God's saying. What we have to understand is it's far better even to be chastened to the point of death on this earth than it is to receive eternal hell. You have to understand that. God's chastening is in love. Now we talked about this a while back, that those who are part of the first resurrection through faith in Jesus Christ do not need to fear the second death. But failure to be careful about obedience to God, and particularly here about the use of the Lord's Supper, can cause us sickness, weakness, and even death. Couple of other things to just think about impacting weakness can arise from sin. Doesn't mean it always does. Sickness can arise from sin. Doesn't mean it always does. So when someone has weakness, think about the blind man where the disciples came to Jesus and said who sinned that he was born blind. But weakness, even death, can arise from sin. You have to understand that. One of the reasons we're talking about these sorts of things in our adult family Bible study this evening. How do we as Christians, as those who are, what's the subtitle? People in need of change, helping people in need of change. That we're sinners and we need to fight sin. And we need to turn from our sins. Verse 31, for if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. Paul's admonition, God's admonition is that we should examine and judge ourselves. If we were careful about these things, we would not need to be worried about these dangers. Notice what he says, that when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord that we may not be condemned with the world. God chastens his people in love. God pulls us back from things that are more dangerous for us. We are chastened by the Lord. And even in the church, when there is time for discipline, to call people back to Christ, that is not hatred, that is love. That is calling one another back to the truth. to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. And the call to unity then as we conclude this passage. Therefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. Wait for one another. Love one another. We need one another. Build one another up rather than tearing one another down. But if anyone is hungry, let them eat at home. This isn't about Meal size. This is about remembering what Christ has done for you, lest you come together for judgment. And the rest I will set in order when I come. The Lord's Supper isn't dinner time. It's about partaking of Christ spiritually. It is about remembering what Christ has done for us. It is about being reminded in physical of the truth of the words we teach. Spiritual things. It's about giving thanks to God for the hope and the salvation for which, when we had no hope, God gave us hope. God gave us life. And so brothers and sisters, as we look at this passage, we're reminded of what we're doing in the Lord's Supper. That we are one body of Christ, partaking of the Lord's Supper together. And there are some things in here that ought to draw us back. To say, am I ready? Notice one thing it doesn't say that I see happen too often in the church. It says, it doesn't say look around you and see how rotten everybody else around you is. It says, examine yourself. There is a place for that, the catechism's right, the consistory, and especially the spiritual counsel has to be careful. But brothers and sisters, it doesn't call for us individually as Christians to be looking down our noses at everyone else. The Lord's Supper is about building communion. about people together all being reminded, I believe the same thing you do. I confess my sins. I have no hope other than Jesus Christ. And I want to live a life of thanksgiving to Him. The Lord's Supper is a demonstration to each one of us of that fact. and of that fellowship which we have as fellow Christians around that fact. The church is the gathering of confessing sinners, it's not the gathering of people that are good enough. Amen. Let us then rise, let us bow before our God in prayer, and we'll close this prayer together with the Lord's Prayer. Almighty, gracious Heavenly Father, we stand in awe of your gifts to us of salvation. That while we were yet sinners, Christ went to the cross. Even before going to the cross, giving thanks, giving the Lord's Supper to the disciples and by extension to us. That we through faith are partakers of Christ. And at that same time, Lord, help us to examine ourselves truly. Help us to truly see our sin. We pray, Lord, that you would cause us to hate it, to turn away from it, as those who have been bought with the price of the blood of Christ. We pray, Lord, that we would put our trust all the more only in Jesus Christ. Our only hope is Christ, his life, his death on our behalf. And we pray then, Lord, that you would work in us, that it would be our full desire to live then in thanksgiving and in praise to you for what you have done in saving us. We pray this for the sake of Christ our Savior, praying as he taught us to pray, saying. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.