1 CORINTHIANS 112004 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: 1 Corinthians 11

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2004.

1 Corinthians chapter 11, we're going to finish it off this morning as we look at Paul's instructions to the Church of Corinth on the Lord's Supper, what we commonly call today is communion. And we'll notice a little bit of differences. In fact, as we look through 1 Corinthians 11, as

as we study it together, it might make a little bit more sense if you have this background. The Corinthians celebrated communion a little bit different than we did. You know, typically we do it in the way that you see before you. You have the cracker and the cup and we partake of communion together. But what the Corinthians did was a little bit different in that they would accompany that with

what they would call agape feast or love feast. And what it would be is a time of fellowship for everybody as they would get together and different people would bring food and they would have a time of fellowship and a great time together as brothers and sisters in the Lord. And they would incorporate into that time a time of communion, a time of reflecting and remembering what Jesus Christ did for them on the cross and what that means to them. And so...

The Church of Corinth then would very regularly have these agape feasts where they would all get together. Now, of course, as you can imagine, as many times it happens today with our potlucks, the young single guys and gals would bring things like ice and soda and things like that. And then others would be able to bring bigger parts of the meal or main courses and dishes and stuff like that. And now that I'm married, I have a wife to look after those things for me. But...

During that time, it would be the same thing. There would be those who were well off, those who could afford to bring some things, and there would be some who couldn't really afford it. And so you would have the different classes there. Some would bring a lot, some would bring a little. Some would just bring ice and soda. That was always my favorite thing. And that's how the agape feast would work. And so as we understand that, as we look into this portion of Scripture, it will make a whole lot more sense for us.

So let's read it together. 1 Corinthians chapter 11, starting in verse 17, it says this. 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 the 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. Verse 23. 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.

Verse 27,

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 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. But 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. Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, we thank you for your word, God, and how it so powerfully speaks to us, God. I ask, Lord, that right now as we get into your word, as we study it and look a little bit deeper, God, that you would reveal yourself to us, God, that this would be a time of reflecting and a time of remembrance upon you, Jesus, and what you've done for us and what you mean to us, God. So, Lord, we ask that we would leave this place having drawn closer to you. We ask that you would touch us, Lord. We open ourselves up and ask that you would speak to us.

It's in your precious name we pray. Amen. Amen. 1 Corinthians chapter 11, as we dig in now, verse 17, he says, look, in giving you these instructions, I do not praise you.

In the following things, Paul says, I don't have any words of praise for you. It's a little bit different, you might remember from last week, as we looked at verse 2 of chapter 11, when Paul said, hey, I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things. And in the area that he was discussing, he says, hey, I praise you. But now in this topic, in the topic of the Lord's Supper and communion, he says, I don't have any words of praise. I don't have anything good I can say about the practice that you are having there with the Lord's Supper. It's kind of harsh, kind of heavy words.

But this is what the Apostle Paul is saying. He says, look, when you come together, it's not for the better, but for the worse. He's saying times of fellowship, times of encouragement, church services, the Lord's Supper, all those things should always be times of growth, times for edification, and that we should leave closer to Jesus than when we came.

We should leave in a better relationship with Christ. Paul says, look, in times of the Lord's Supper, in times of fellowship, you should leave closer to Christ and farther from sin. But he says your meetings are for the worse. So you're leaving closer to sin and farther from Christ. Your meetings, your Lord's Supper, your agape feast, you may call them,

They're helping. I'm sorry, they're not helping you, but they're hurting you spiritually. They're hurting you. And so he gives two specific reasons why he says that they're hurting him. Verse 18, he says, 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. What's the first problem? What's the big deal?

Well, there's divisions among them. We've known this of the Corinthians in the past. We saw that in 1 Corinthians 1, verses 11 through 17, as groups would be together and they would divide the body of Christ. And some would say, hey, I'm of the Apostle Paul. And others would say, well, I'm of Apollos. And another group would say, well, I'm of Cephas or Peter. And finally, the last group would say, well, I'm of Jesus Christ. And they would have these divisions, these separations within the body of Christ.

That may be what Paul is talking about here, these divisions when they fellowship together. It also may be, and from the text it says,

It looks like it's kind of referring to a division of class, as there were the rich and the poor. There were those who were masters and those who were slaves within the body of Christ there at Corinth. And as we look throughout the rest of the portion, you might be able to see and understand that it's probably referring to those divisions, the division of class. And that's wrong, Paul says. Look, the church is not supposed to be divided. It's the body of Christ.

The next couple of weeks as we look at chapter 12, we'll be looking at the body of Christ and how it is supposed to be united and that each part does its share and has a purpose. And so the body of Christ should not be divided. The church of God should not have these divisions. Christ came and died on the cross to eliminate those separations. And we've talked about that as well before, even last week as we looked at Galatians chapter 3.

that there's no divisions anymore. There's no Jew, no Gentile, no male, no female, so on and so forth. So Paul says, look, the first thing is there's divisions among you. You've got your different cliques or factions going on and it's not good. It's not supposed to be division.

Well, in verse 19, he kind of gives us an interesting verse. It says, for there must also be factions among you that those who are approved may be recognized among you. Now, there's a couple of ways to interpret this. Nobody is quite sure exactly which way is the correct one, but I'll just explain it real briefly. The first way of looking at this is saying, hey, the only good thing that comes from factions and divisions is it shows, it demonstrates which ones are right on with the Lord and which ones aren't.

Because the ones who are grouped in their clique and got their own thing going, it's very easy to spot, okay, those guys are doing the wrong thing. They're not walking with the Lord. They're not walking in love. But they're doing their own thing. But then those who are kind of part of the...

accepting everybody and stuff, you know that they're walking in love, that they're truly having the example and the desire of Christ. So that's one way of looking at it. Another way of looking at it is, hey, there has to be factions among you because you show so much favoritism. You have your cliques, you have your things going together, and as a result...

There are factions and that's how you demonstrate to each other what group you're a part of and which group you favor and which leader you favor and so on and so forth. And so either way we look at this, Paul says it's not a good thing to have those divisions. It's not a good thing to be divided in the body of Christ.

In verse 20, he says, therefore, when you come together in one place, it's not to eat the Lord's Supper. He says, therefore, since there's those divisions going on, there's these divisions within the body. He says, whatever you may call it, you might call it an agape feast. You might call it the Lord's Supper. But Paul says, you can call it whatever you want. It's not what you're doing. Because what you're doing has nothing to do with the body of Christ.

What you're doing has nothing to do with Jesus Christ. It's not what Jesus would do. It's not what Jesus commanded to do. So he says, whatever you want to call it, it's not the Lord's Supper that you're partaking of. You're maybe doing something religiously, but you're not doing anything spiritually. He says in verse 21, Here's the other problem.

There's the divisions, but then there's also selfishness that's going on within the body. He says this isn't agape love. You call an agape feast God's love, the supernatural love. That's not agape love. I'm hungry. I'm going to eat. I'm not going to wait for anybody else. He says to the point that one group is hungry and another group is drunk. One group is empty and another has overindulged, has just completely filled themselves and gluttoned themselves on everything.

That's not agape love. The me first mentality, you know, like Mario has when he goes to hometown buffet and he knocks the old ladies aside, just boom, boom, and gets to the scrambled eggs, you know, ahead of everybody. Just kidding. We love Mario.

But the me first mentality, the idea that, hey, I have to go first, that's not of Christ. That's the selfish desires of the flesh. And so these are the two problems that the Corinthians had in the Lord's Supper. In that they were divided, they had these divisions, but then they also had this selfish attitude that they didn't care about anybody else as long as their hunger was satisfied, as long as they got to indulge.

He says, one's hungry and another is drunk. One's full, another's empty. Man, may we never have that mentality that I don't care if you're hungry, I'm going to have my fill. I don't care if you're hurting, I'm going to get what I need. That's the attitude and the idea that they had here. When we went to American Samoa a few years back, as we went over there to serve and to do some missions work, it was quite different for us because the food is quite different to begin with, but

Their customs are a little bit different than ours. Pastor Tom always shared with us, and as we're getting ready to go over there, he always said, hey, you want to make sure that we're the servants. Servants eat last. You want to serve them and be a blessing to them. And so you don't rush the line. When there's potlucks and things like that, you just wait and just wait and eat last and be a blessing to people. Well, in American Samoa, the custom is quite opposite of that.

And they will not eat until their guests eat, until those who minister to them eat. And so it was very different. And it's kind of awkward for us because we're not used to that. And it was against everything that Pastor Tom had shared with us. But we had to learn to do it because otherwise none of us would eat. And so we wanted to eat. But we had that awkwardness. And that's a good feeling. That's something we need to hold on to is that

It's not about me first. It's not about, you know, what I need, but it's how I can sacrifice what I need to bless you. And that's what Christianity is all about. That's what agape love is all about. And so Paul says, look, this feast that you're having, you call it an agape feast, but it's not done in love. You're not doing it correctly. He says in verse 22, what? Don't you have houses to eat and drink in? Look, you're coming here to indulge, to have your fill.

If you're hungry, eat at home, he says. Just eat at home. It's okay. Don't come here just to overindulge and to take from those who are poor, who can't afford maybe to have a good meal. There's many of the times back there where there would be the masters, the rich, and the poor, the slaves. And so the slaves, they wouldn't have much money. They wouldn't have much income.

food or supplies or anything like that. And so, you know, the time of fellowship here would be a great time for them to experience a good meal, to have a great meal, but then also to be blessed with the fellowship and the partaking of the Lord's Supper. So the Apostle Paul says, look, you're robbing each other. He says, look, do you shame or despise the church of God and shame those who are poor, who have nothing? No. If you're hungry, eat at home, he says. The point of the

Of the practice, the point of the agape feast was not that you, you know, put on your gluttonous clothes, you know, with the elastic and the waist and everything so you can fill up, but that you have fellowship with one another, that you bless one another, that you love one another and tell each other about what Jesus Christ is doing in your life.

So he says, hey, shall I praise you in this? Oh man, I do not praise you, the Apostle Paul says. I don't praise you. I don't have any good words because what you're doing is wrong. You're dividing the body of Christ. You're acting in selfishness, which is exactly opposite of what Jesus Christ came to do and commanded us to do.

Well, why does he feel so strongly about this? Why does he feel so passionately about this? Verse 23 tells us very clearly, Why is he passionate about this? Why is he harshly rebuking them for these things? Because these are things that he taught them, that he had received directly from the Lord, he says. I received from the Lord.

Now, there's a couple ways again of looking at this. Some people say, well, he received it by tradition, you know, because Jesus commanded it and the church practiced it. But what's more likely is that he received it by revelation. If you look at Acts chapter 9 when Jesus Christ appeared to him and we've seen before as well that

that the Lord revealed to him specific things. The Lord revealed to him, and evidently revealed to him as well, the ordinance of communion, partaking communion and fellowshipping in the Lord's Supper together. He says, look, I received this from the Lord. This is what I got from the Lord. This is what I gave to you. Now you've taken it and twisted it and made it a thing of the flesh instead of a thing of the Spirit. And so he goes on then in verses 24 through 26 to relate

What he received from God, what he received from him. And you can also find these portions of scripture in Matthew 26, Mark 14, and Luke chapter 22. If you want to look at the last supper that Jesus had with his disciples and the context of what this took place.

But we see that first he says that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which he was betrayed took bread. First he reminds us, hey, don't forget, this was on the same night. This was taking place whenever Jesus Christ was being betrayed, when Judas was going out to sell him for the 30 pieces of silver. This all took place, this all happened on the night that he went to die on the cross for your sins and my sins.

So he says, that's what I first want you to remember. But he says he took bread and when he had given things, he broke it. And he said this, take, eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. First, he takes the bread. We know that to be the cracker today is what we what we use to represent that. He takes the bread and he breaks it. And he says, hey, take and eat this.

to his disciples there in the upper room. Take and eat this. This is my body, which is broken for you. Now, unlike the Catholic doctrine, we don't believe that it literally physically becomes the body of Jesus Christ. And that's what the Catholic doctrine teaches. It's called transubstantiation, in case you're wondering. I don't think you are. But it's not literally physically becoming the body of Christ.

What is it then? Well, it's symbolic. It's symbolic. Remember when Jesus broke it, he was still alive. He wasn't saying, look, this is actually my body. But it was symbolic of what was about to take place, that his body would be broken for them. Now, for us, it's more than symbolic in the idea like it's just a symbol and we can get used to it and no big deal. But there's so much meaning here.

and the body of Christ being broken for us, that it should be a reverent time. It should be a time where we reflect and we look and say, wow, Jesus Christ, his body was broken for you and I. His body was bruised, was beaten, was crucified for you and I. And he says, this is my body, which is broken for you. Not that it literally became his body, like I said, but that to us, to us, it becomes life. To us, it becomes life.

A time of intimacy, a fellowship, because it's only through the broken body of Jesus Christ that we can have fellowship with him. You might remember the story of the cross. And as he was crucified, there was the curtain within the temple that was torn in two from top to bottom. It was broken so that we could go into the Holy of Holies, the very presence of God.

So as we look at the bread, as we reflect on it, we know that Jesus is saying, look, my body was broken, that you could be in my presence, that you could have fellowship with me, that you could experience my joy, that you could experience me, Jesus said. It's all about me. He says, do this in remembrance of me. Then he takes the cup.

And he tells them, hey, look, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. He takes the cup and he says, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. What was the old covenant? Well, we find it in Exodus chapter 24, verses 3 through 8. And in there, if you look at that portion of scripture, you'll notice it was also a covenant that was in blood, but it was based on the law.

It was based on fulfilling the requirements of the law, that you had to fulfill these laws, these regulations, these rituals, and these duties. You had to do these things and do this and do that. It was a covenant that was based on us doing. But the new covenant that Jesus is proclaiming here is not about do, but it's about done.

That Jesus Christ on the cross said, it is finished. The work is complete. There's nothing more that you or I can do to make ourselves in a right relationship with Jesus Christ. He's already done the work. He's paid the price. He's freed us from the bondage of the law so that all we do now is receive him. We accept the gift that he's given. It's a new covenant and it's in his blood. It's in his blood. And so Jesus said, take this, drink it.

Accept the new covenant. Accept and believe in the covenant that I am proclaiming. So, in the bread, in the cup, we find that there is great symbolism there for us. There's great things for us to remember. Number one, that we can have access to his presence because his body was broken for us. But number two, that there's a new covenant. That we don't have to work ourselves into heaven. But by his blood, we've been washed, we've been cleansed, we've been forgiven.

And we can experience eternity with Jesus Christ by simply receiving what he has done because he did the work. He paid the price. So communion serves these two purposes then. Number one, he says, do this in remembrance of me.

Remembrance of me. He said it after the bread and he said it after the cup. Do this in remembrance. Remember me. Remember Jesus Christ. Remember the forgiveness that goes along with Jesus Christ and his death on the cross. Remember the presence that you get to experience. The joy. The inexplicable joy. The love. The peace. The freedom from guilt. Remember Jesus Christ.

It's the first purpose. The second purpose we find in verse 26, as he says, The first purpose was for us to remember. The second purpose is a reminder that he's coming back. He says, Hey, remember, think back.

Reflect on what Jesus Christ has done. Reflect on who Jesus Christ is. Think about him. Allow him to be the Lord of your life. But then also a reminder, he's coming again. He hasn't left you here for good, but he's coming back for you. He's coming back to set up his kingdom here on this earth. He's coming back to rapture the church. He's coming back.

Jesus Christ is coming back. So Paul says, remember, and it's a reminder that Jesus Christ, it's all about Jesus. Remember Jesus. It's a reminder Jesus is coming. It was instituted by Jesus, Paul says. He's the one who started it there in the upper room with the disciples. And it was a special time of fellowship. You could imagine, as Jesus is spending his last few moments with his disciples, it was a special time. But remember,

Paul's not saying that this has to be done only on certain times or that they're not doing it according to the right time. It doesn't have to be done at church. It doesn't have to be done in a formal setting like this. Communion is any time when...

When believers in the Lord sit down to fellowship and remember Jesus Christ and think about Jesus Christ and remind each other that Jesus Christ is coming again. That's what communion is all about. And so I would encourage you, man, partake of communion as often as you can with your family, with your friends, with your co-workers, as believers. As you sit down, think about Jesus. Reflect upon Jesus Christ. Remember that he is coming again. So Paul says...

Remember, it's a reminder. And then he goes on in verses 27 through 34 to give them some more instruction. He says, Therefore, whoever eats this bread and drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. Therefore, therefore, since this sacrament, since the Lord's Supper and Communion was from Jesus Christ directly, since it was commanded by him, it's sacred.

It's something that's important and should be taken seriously and not lightly. Something that we shouldn't just kind of flippantly do as a religious ritual or experience. But something we should take seriously and take to heart and really spend time with the Lord. So he says, 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. Whoever takes of communion, whoever partakes of these things in an unworthy manner. Now,

What he is not saying is that you must be worthy and be righteous and completely perfect in order to partake of communion. That's not what he's saying at all. None of us are worthy to spend time with the Lord, to dwell in his presence. That's why he died. The Bible teaches us that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That includes, yes, those who are saved, those who are leaders within the church, those who are pastors. We all sin, we all fall. None of us are worthy.

We're all unworthy to fellowship with Jesus Christ. But there is one thing, one thing that allows us to have that fellowship, to experience that joy, to dwell in His presence. One thing. What is that? It's our attitude. It's our reception.

of Jesus Christ and His gift, of what He did for us on the cross. By receiving that, that's the only thing that allows us access into that. And so an unworthy manner is by not receiving that. An unworthy manner is not doing it the way that Jesus said. How did Jesus say to do it? In remembrance.

He said to do it in remembrance, that we would be thinking about him, that we would be looking to him and keeping him the center, the focus of our life. To partake of communion in an unworthy manner then is to partake of it when Jesus Christ is not our Lord. To partake of it without reflecting upon him, without remembering him, without looking to him as our Lord and Savior.

Really what that is, is idolatry, having something else that's more important to us than Christ, than God. And so Paul says, hey, don't take it in an idolatrous way. Don't take it in an unworthy manner where it means nothing to you except for that you get some food. But take it in a worthy manner. He says in verse 28, but let a man examine himself and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

So how do you protect yourself from taking it in an unworthy manner? Well, you protect yourself by examining yourself. By examining yourself beforehand. He says, examine yourself. Now, how exactly do we do that? Well, first it's important to note that when we do the first part, when we remember Jesus Christ, when we think about him and his sacrifice and what he's done for us, if we're really thinking about it, the only thing it can really do is put us back in our place.

Put us back to where we're supposed to be and put him back to where he's supposed to be in our life. What are we? Well, we're sinners saved by grace. If we meditate, if we think about, if we focus on and really ponder Jesus Christ and his sacrifice, we can only come to this conclusion. We're sinners saved by grace. That's it. That he just died on the cross for us because he loves us.

Because he wants to have fellowship with us. And so it puts us back in our place. So that's important. But how do we examine ourselves? How do we make sure that we have the right heart in coming into this? Well, we know from Jeremiah 17, 9 that our hearts are deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. So we can't trust ourselves to examine ourselves because we're wicked and deceitful people. We'll deceive ourselves and think we're okay. We have to ask God to show us how to do it. We have to ask God to show us what he wants us to change.

what He needs to work within our life. We have to be open to it and recognize, hey, I'm not perfect. Lord, show me where You want to work in my life. Just like the psalmist did in Psalm 139.

Verses 23 and 24 where the psalmist said, Hey, search me and know me, God. And chime me, my innermost thoughts. See if there's any wicked way within me. Man, Lord, search me out, examine me. And that's what we must do. We must allow God to examine us, to work through our hearts, to wash us clean and pure from the sin that so easily entangles us, so easily catches us up in its clutches, in its grips.

So Paul says, number one, examine yourself. Verse 29, for he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner, eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. If you eat and drink, he says, back to the same word he used before, an unworthy manner, without remembering Jesus Christ, without putting him back in the right place in your life.

He says, you eat and drink judgment to yourself. And then he goes on in verse 30 and says, for this reason, many are weak and sick among you and many sleep. Now, this again is another good couple of scriptures for great contention among the body of Christ. What is this really talking about? What does this mean? Well, he's definitely not saying that all sickness is attributed to this, to partaking in an unworthy manner. But what he's saying is this.

If we don't have the right relationship with Jesus Christ, we're inviting judgment into our life. We're inviting correction from the Lord. It's not that there's some magic potion or magic formula that goes over the bread and the cup. And so if you eat and drink of it, and man, if there's a little bit of sin in your life, or there's a little bit of this or a little bit of that, that you're going to be in trouble. No, no, that's not what he's talking about at all.

What he's saying is, look, to take it in an unworthy manner is to not have Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. It's to not remember him and keep him in the right place, the center and focus of your life. And so to take it in that way, with that attitude, with that heart, is to invite correction. Because you're challenging the Lord. You're saying, hey, it doesn't mean anything to me. I'm just in it for what I get out of it. I don't even care about Jesus Christ, basically.

I'm not worried about that. I'm not focused on that. I don't need that right now. And so he says, hey, if you do it that way, you're inviting judgment. You're inviting God to correct you. Because whenever he is not the Lord of our lives, he's going to correct us. He's going to bring situations into our life to get our attention. That we would come back to him. That we would repent from those things. And sometimes, he says, in sickness and death, hey, sometimes God's trying to get our attention. Again, it doesn't mean all sickness and death is from that. Not at all by far.

But what he is saying is, hey, pay attention. Is the Lord trying to get your attention? Is the Lord trying to get a hold of you to let you know, hey, you've forgotten me? Maybe like the church of Ephesus that Jesus spoke to in Revelation. You've forgotten your first love. You've forgotten the relationship that you once had with me. Paul says, don't eat like that. Don't drink like that. Don't try to go through the religious process without having a real encounter with Jesus Christ.

Verse 31, he says, He says, look, if you would judge yourself, if you would examine yourself, then you wouldn't be judged. Now, as Christians, we're very quick to judge others. In fact, many times when we judge others, we're very harsh about it. We think we know their motives. We think we know their heart.

But we've looked at that as well in Corinthians, that we're not to judge. We don't know their heart. Only God knows their heart. And so we're not to judge people's motives or their heart. But we should judge ourselves. We should examine ourselves and then repent of the things that God shows us. That's a good thing for us to do, to understand and to realize, hey, I don't have it all together. I'm not perfect, but I need Jesus Christ to deal with my heart, to work within me, just like all of you need Jesus Christ to work in your heart and deal within you.

He's got to be the center. He's got to be our Lord. If we don't judge ourselves, Paul says, then we're judged by the Lord. We're chastened, he uses the word, by the Lord. He corrects us for our eternal good. We find that as well in Hebrews chapter 12, verses 3 through 11, where Paul says, or the writer of Hebrews says, that...

The Lord chastens those whom He loves. And if you're a child of God, it will be proved by the chastening that you receive. And if you're not chastened, then He says, Hey, I wonder if you're a child of God.

We need to understand and realize that the Lord uses correction. He uses a little bit of judgment within our lives that we would be corrected, that we'd get on the right path. Now, he's not talking about eternal damnation. He's not talking about the loss of salvation. How do we know? Because he goes on in verse 32, that we may not be condemned with the world.

He's not correcting us. He's not bringing that little bit of judgment within our life, that chastening, so that we would be condemned and cast off completely forever. No, but that we might, through that trial, through that time, understand that God has been speaking to us and come back and hear from Him and put Him back in this proper place within our life, chastened by the Lord. It's not a pleasant thing. And Hebrews 12 says that as well. It's not pleasant. It's not fun. We don't enjoy it. But it's for our good. It's beneficial.

So Paul says in verse 33, Therefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. But 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. He says, look, if you come together, when you come together for these agape feasts, for these times of fellowship, wait for one another. Don't be so concerned about yourself. If you're hungry, eat at home ahead of time. Just have something so you're not starving. Because the point of the service is not

That you get full, but that you fellowship. Not that you get full spiritually, physically, but you get full spiritually. My bad. That you fellowship. That you remember Jesus Christ. That you share Jesus Christ. You proclaim his death till he comes. You remember his place and what he's done for you. So Paul is rebuking the Corinthians for taking away the importance of

the special, the preciousness of this time of communion, of fellowship with the Lord. You know, that's why Jesus Christ came. That's why he died. So that you and I could spend time with him. That's all he desires. That's what he wants. And for us now, in this day, in this age, we don't have the agape feast quite like they had. We do celebrate communion and partake of communion together. And so it'd be easy to look and say, well, we don't have that problem. But

The question I would ask myself as well as you is, are we partaking of communion in an unworthy manner? Yeah, we might not have the divisions like they had then. We might not have the selfishness. Even though communion always makes me hungry, man. I'm always hungry after second service. Ooh, I can't wait to have lunch because that cracker just starts the stomach going. But it's not about that, and I don't think we have that problem. But the question for you and I, because it's so easy for us to think lightly of Jesus Christ.

for us to not consider, for us to not ponder, not take to heart the things that God is speaking to us and to take them off the throne of our life. And so I would ask you this morning as we partake of communion together, Royce and the worship team is going to come forward and lead us in worship, that you would take time to do as the Apostle Paul said and examine yourself, to examine yourself and allow God to speak to you

Maybe there's areas that he wants you to change. Maybe there's areas that need correction. Maybe there's areas, you know, that Jesus just wants to hear your voice. He just wants you to hear his. It doesn't have to be, you know, always about correction, but it's just about sweet fellowship with him. You know, we should leave this place with a smile on our face, having experienced the presence of Jesus Christ, having come into contact with Jesus Christ, having been filled with his spirit and been blessed.

For us today, communion still has these two main things. Number one, to remember. And then number two, a reminder. Remember Jesus Christ. Think about Jesus Christ. Keep Him on the throne of your heart. You know, and this morning, if maybe you're here and you don't know if you're a Christian or not, maybe you've been backslidden or you've never accepted Him or you've never been born again or maybe you don't even know what born again means.

Born again is the expression, is the phrase that Jesus used to describe what happens when a person becomes a Christian. Because there's a new life that takes place. A new life that's found only in Jesus Christ. And this morning, you can be forgiven. You can be cleansed. You can be free from sin, from bondage, from guilt. You can experience the presence of God and the peace that passes all understanding. The approval, the satisfaction of God.

Right now. Simply by in your heart asking the Lord for forgiveness. Receiving the gift that He paid for you on the cross. It's as simple as that. There's nothing complicated. There's nothing complex. But it's all about Jesus Christ and the work being finished. So this morning, if you're a Christian here this morning, if you are a believer...

I would ask as Royce leads us in worship to examine yourself. Allow God to speak to you. And if he shows you things you need to repent of, repent. If he shows you things that he just wants to lead you on, lead you closer to him, man, follow him. Draw close to Jesus Christ. Don't leave this place. Don't leave this time without having come in contact with Jesus Christ. And if you're not saved this morning, I encourage you, pray that prayer in your heart. Come to Jesus Christ.

And partake of communion with us. Represent that Jesus Christ has come into your heart. That Jesus Christ has come to change you, to free you. So as they pass out the elements, hold your portions, hold the bread and the cup, and we'll partake together as a family. But let's examine ourselves and meditate on Jesus Christ.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.