Sermon Tone Analysis
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I really enjoy fellowship dinners.
Which is probably because I like to eat.
You can probably guess what my favorite part of fellowship dinners are....
If I were super spiritual, I would say the fellowship.
But, it is the desserts.
I’ve got a huge sweet tooth.
But, I do like the fellowship.
God designed his church to fellowship with each other.
And that is done better downstairs during a meal than upstairs during a service.
I feel sorry for those who cannot attend fellowship meals, because they are missing out on a rich blessing from God.
Just like those who have to miss services hurt.
Nancy really missed the fellowship not being able to be here for a month.
And others who have been out for so long experience the same.
God designed us to be together and to yearn to be together.
Unfortunately, we are pulled in so many ways to not be together.
Busyness of life, schedules, commitments, wrong priorities.
They all keep us apart if we are not careful.
But, our own selfishness, our own wrong attitude, even when we are physically present, can keep us apart, and tear us from the fellowship and worship of being the Church of Jesus Christ.
Last week, Paul transitioned into a substantially long section on worship.
We talked about head coverings, and if you weren’t here, I’m sorry that you missed the memo.
We will begin instituting head coverings next week.
That’s a joke.
In our current passage, which we will spend three weeks on, Paul talks about the attitude of worship, the focus of worship, and the result of worship.
Let’s read the passage.
Today, we are just going to discuss verses 17-22, the attitude of worship.
Will you pray with me?
The early church celebrated the Lord’s supper every week.
The couched communion within a fellowship meal, called the Love Feast.
They met together for a meal, and part of that meal was the Lord’s supper.
As people stopped meeting in houses, the practice of a meal dropped off, becoming more of what we do, a fellowship meal after the service, with the Lord’s supper as a focus within the service.
This is an important background for this passage, which might clear somethings up.
Hopefully, I will connect some of the dots through this sermon, as we see how the Corinthians were not having the write attitude of worship in their fellowship with each other.
1. Attitude: Humility
The first attitude which we see in this passage is humility.
Paul writes, rather scathingly:
When the Christians met in each other’s homes for services and taking the Lord’s Supper, there were literal divisions among them, divisions based on social status, splitting the guests up into different rooms.
In the late 1970s, James Wiseman excavated a Corinthian villa, which is dated between AD 50 and 75, so about the time of Paul’s writing.
The site is still there and can be visited.
When guests entered the house, they came into an atrium, or a courtyard hallway, which opened into four or five other rooms.
One of these rooms was the triclinium, basically the dining room.
It was roughly 24x18 ft, with couches for reclining on.
About nine guests could fit in it.
The courtyard hallway was about 16x20 ft, with a pool in the middle of it.
About 30-40 people could fit in the courtyard, either sitting or standing.
If more than nine people came to eat at these homes, there would be a division.
Nine would eat in the dining room, and the rest would eat in the courtyard.
If that division wasn’t bad enough.
Normally the division was made on social status and wealth.
The poorer or less esteemed guests would be placed in the courtyard, which was scarcely furnished.
Normally, the quality of the food, drink, service, and comfort was much less than that in the dining room.
In fact, those in the dining room would be served first.
The Corinthians were using their divisions to show who was “favored by God.” Unfortunately, it backfired, because now Paul and everyone else knew who really had God’s approval.
The proof of someone who is truly following Christ is not a correct belief system, but in behavior that reflects the Gospel.
The Corinthians were showing by their deeds that they were not truly following Jesus Christ.
Yes, they might be saved, but they are not following Jesus.
They were proud.
The right attitude of worship is humility.
It is a knowledge of what Solomon confesses in Ecclesiastes:
We are all in the same boat: sinners in the hands of an angry God, because we have lived our lives against him.
We all are in need of mercy.
Paul over and over again urges Christians that no one is better than another: it doesn’t matter the nationality or the belief system.
We all desperately need Jesus.
Knowing this fact brings humility.
We are all the same: you, me, and the guy in the sound booth.
We might have different roles, but we don’t have different statuses.
2. Attitude: Unity
With Humility, comes unity.
Let’s read those verses again:
Because of their pride, they were divided.
Humility brings unity.
Paul said it differently in Ephesians.
Beginning in chapter 2, Paul discusses the Gospel:
We are all the same: we all need God’s amazing grace for salvation.
It is nothing that we can do to earn.
Once Paul makes that foundation statement about the Gospel, he continues into discussing the two main groups of Christians at that time: the Jews and the Gentiles, who were historically divided.
When we realize that we are nothing, desperately in need of God’s grace, we will draw closer to those around us who are also nothing, desperately in need of God’s grace.
We will pursue fellowship with the Church, because we need each other.
We are what God is building.
As we are together, united, he is glorified, because we are something that is completely countercultural to the world around.
Instead of building barriers and holding grudges, instead of keeping people out or looking down on each other, instead of gossiping and backbiting, we stand shoulder to shoulder, linking elbows to glorify our God.
This salvation we have, this humility that should pour out of us, results in a different attitude and lifestyle, which itself promotes unity.
Unity.
Turn to someone near you and say: I realize that you are a wicked sinner.
But, I am a wicked sinner too.
Praise God for his grace!
Now, let’s join hands and sing Kumbaiyah.
Just joking!
In a more serious note, there was a reason while the early church greeted each other with a holy kiss, or as it morphed into a hug, and then into a handshake.
Some churches do a passing of the peace instead.
But, it started as a reminder for our unity.
We are desperately in need of each other and desperately in need of God’s grace.
And we need every reminder for it.
Attitudes of worship: Humility.
Unity.
3. Attitude: Service
For those who are bored with the first three verses, we are about to chart new territory.
Service.
Paul says that when the Corinthians met, they went ahead with their own suppers, before others were served.
Picture those gatherings.
The rich are in the inner room, and poorer ones are beginning to assemble, but some are late because they are coming from work.
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