Focus!
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Have you ever lost focus on a project, and everything got messed up?
It seems that every week, I struggle with my focus during sermons. Maggie and I had a heart to heart a few weeks ago, trying to understand the pressures that each other face. And I told Maggie that many times writing sermons is like wrestling with Satan until it is done.
I sit down to prepare and write the sermon, and I am accosted by so many distractions, distractions from inside me. Distractions from outside of me. And I lose focus, and then the sermon takes longer and is more difficult to write.
I think about Peter, sitting on the boat. You might remember the story.
He and the rest of the disciples were sailing to the other side of the lake after the feeding of the 5 thousand. Jesus had stayed behind for crowd control and for some private praying.
He then walks on the water out to the boat. All the disciples are scared out of their mind.
Jesus says: “take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
Peter, the brave man that he is says: If it is really you, tell me to come to you on the water.
And Jesus says: come.
Peter gets down out of the boat. Remember, the boat is in the middle of the lake. It is windy, so the waves are pretty big. But, Peter gets out of the boat and starts walking towards Jesus.
Then he looks around, and sees the wind, becomes afraid, and starts to sink. Jesus catches him and says: you of little faith, why did you doubt?
Peter lost focus and started to sink.
That is me. That is you. It is human to take our eyes off of Jesus, even in the middle of a worship service centered around Jesus.
And if we take our eyes off of Jesus here, we will definitely take our eyes off of him during the week.
Our goal in the worship service is to realign our focus, so that we can keep it during the week.
Paul is urging the Corinthians to change the way that they worship. Last week, we talked about the attitude of worship: humility, unity, service, and focus. This week, we will dive into the focus of worship.
Let’s read the whole passage:
In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval. So then, when you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, for when you are eating, some of you go ahead with your own private suppers. As a result, one person remains hungry and another gets drunk. Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God by humiliating those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? Certainly not in this matter!
For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night 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, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment. Nevertheless, when we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally condemned with the world.
So then, my brothers and sisters, when you gather to eat, you should all eat together. Anyone who is hungry should eat something at home, so that when you meet together it may not result in judgment.
And when I come I will give further directions.
We are going to focus on the middle section today, verses 23-26. The Focus of Worship. Will you pray with me?
Let’s talk about the focus of Worship, put in a word: Jesus, but you pay me to be more long-winded than that.
1. Focus on Jesus: his life
1. Focus on Jesus: his life
This passage is an explanation of the Lord’s Supper, communion, Eucharist, whatever you want to call it. If you are interested in why there are different names, we can talk.
For the early church, the Lord’s Supper was the culmination of their service. They would sing, they would listen to teaching about the Bible and Jesus. Then they would take the Lord’s Supper as a commitment to live for Jesus until they met again, committing to apply the truths they had just heard to their lives.
It was a way of snapping their focus back to Jesus, as we always need.
The formula, or ritual, is very specifically worded to point to several things.
First, there is a focus on Jesus’ life.
For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread,
We believe in a literal person who lived 2000 years ago. This man’s birth was witnessed by his mom and his dad, by shepherds, by wise men from the east. Everyone in the small town Nazareth knew him growing up. When he became an adult, people from all over Judea, Samaria, and Galilee knew who he was.
The fact that Jesus lived 2000 years ago is not contested.
The fact that Jesus was a great, moral teacher also is not contested. Other religions point to Jesus as a great teacher, someone who should be studied.
For us, knowing that Jesus literally lived, and that he lived a specific way. Our focus should be on imitating how he lived.
His life was about dying so that other’s might live.
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
He left the glories of heaven to live among us.
When he became an adult, he left a great occupation as a carpenter to become a homeless man, wandering the countryside.
Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”
Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
Why did he do this? So that he could help the world out their shameful existence, into the hope of a relationship with the creator of the universe.
As he wandered the countryside, he was met by crowds, and he looked on them with compassion.
Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
His compassion drove him to help them physically, with their diseases and sicknesses. But, his compassion also drove him to help them spiritually, by teaching about the kingdom of God. His compassion reached out both physically and spiritually, not one or the other.
His continual dying to self in order to help others culminated on the night before he died. Right before they had the last supper together, which our Lord’s supper commemorates, he washed his disciples’ feet. He did the role of a servant, even though he was the master, showing that his followers were to have the attitude of a servant.
Even up until his betrayal by Judas, he was teaching and caring for his disciples spiritually.
When he was hanging on the cross, he was caring for those around him, begging God to forgive those who were hurting him. Asking John to take care of his mother.
Jesus’ life majored on giving to others, meeting physical and spiritual needs.
When we come together to worship, we have a focus on his life.
2. Focus on Jesus: his death
2. Focus on Jesus: his death
Next, our focus is Jesus’ death.
Jesus takes the 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.”
The disciples are floored at what he says. Jesus is following the normal outline for a Passover meal at this time.
The meal is opened by giving thanks to God:
The First Epistle to the Corinthians Was the Last Supper a Passover Meal? Significance for Exegesis
“Blessed art Thou, O Lord, our God, King of the Universe, Creator of the produce of the earth.”
Then the person officiating over the Passover lifts up the bread and says:
The First Epistle to the Corinthians Was the Last Supper a Passover Meal? Significance for Exegesis
“This is the bread of affliction that our forefathers ate in the land of Egypt.”
Important to note, no one in the Passover meal ever thought that the piece of bread was literally the bread from the Passover in Egypt. The wording was used to draw the participant into remember all that Israel went through in their redemption, so that they would picture themselves in the past, as slaves, as needing rescued by God, remembering their salvation.
But, Jesus does not say: this is the bread of affliction, but he said:
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.”
The disciples had to have been in shock at this radical change from tradition. It was seared into their minds, being passed down from generation to generation to us.
Jesus urged his disciples to celebrate this meal in remembrance of him, just as the Passover was in remembrance of what God did for the Israelites, rescuing them out of Egypt.
The breaking of the bread symbolized Jesus’ death. As he took the unleavened loaf, breaking it, it graphically symbolized his body being torn apart.
We know how he died, but in our sanitized society, we don’t always allow ourselves to remember as we take Communion. As we crunch down on our crackers, we don’t always picture Jesus’ body being broken.
We don’t hear the slash of the whip across his back, his skin torn apart to the bone. We don’t see the crown of thorns drilling into his scull. We don’t picture the nails being driven into Jesus hands and feet. As his arms were stretched across, we don’t hear and feel the bones popping out of their sockets. After he breathed his last agonizing breath, we don’t experience the tearing of the flesh as the spear was stabbed into his side.
Amazingly, no bones were broken in his body. But his body was torn apart, just as he tore the bread apart.
When we come together to worship, our focus is on his death, because his death is the reason we are here.
He died the death we should have died. When he hung on that cross, he took our sins on his shoulders and bore them to the grave.
As Paul said:
The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
His death was the natural result of his life. He lived his life giving himself for others.
In his own words:
Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
John records for us this:
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Earlier in that chapter in John, Jesus points ahead to the cross, explaining to Nicodemus the necessity of his death:
Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”
As we worship him, we must remember his death, because his death brought us life. His death was the reason for his existence. If we forget that, our faith is lost.
Our focus is on Jesus: his life and his death.
3. Focus on Jesus: His redemption
3. Focus on Jesus: His redemption
If you follow the timeline, the next focus is Jesus’ redemption.
In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
Again, Jesus is leading the disciples through the Passover meal, but changing specific parts of it to reflect his upcoming salvation.
Through the meal, the participants usually shared four different cups of wine, each symbolizing something important about the Passover.
The third and fourth cups were shared after the meal was eaten. The third cup represented the covenant which God made with Israel at Sinai. The ten commandments and the rest of the law. By drinking it, the Israelites were renewing that covenant for another year.
Jesus hands the cup to the disciples and doesn’t refer to the covenant given to Moses on Mount Sinai. He instead says:
In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
This is not a covenant of Law, but a covenant of redemption through grace.
Jesus died for us that we might be saved.
As John continued after the famous verse: John 3:17-18
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
Everyone who has ever breathed stands condemned by God because of our lives. We start out that way. We are sinners, desperately in need of God’s grace.
So, he gave us his grace. Jesus died, taking our sin upon himself.
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
So, in Christ, not only do we stand sinless, but we stand completely righteous.
The amazing thing about this is that we don’t have to do anything to earn this salvation.
There are some churches who had to the Word of God and say that we have to earn our salvation. They use terms like “sacraments”, telling people to earn bits of Grace.
Ironically, some of them use the Lord’s Supper, saying that we have to take it in order to earn what Jesus already earned.
But Jesus’ redemption is a free gift.
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
It is a gift that we just have to receive.
Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
The Bible is clear that good works, or religious rituals do nothing for our salvation.
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.
So, why do some churches teach that we have to do things, like participate in Jesus’ sacrifice every week, as the elements are magically changed to be his body, so that he can be crucified again. Like being baptized. Like praying certain prayers, or tithing, or attending church, or any thing else you might bring up.
Unfortunately, by putting these man-made requirements before the gracious work of Jesus, they have removed the focus of redemption from their worship, directing their gaze on ourselves and our weak humanity.
When our focus could be on the glorious gift of our great God and savior, Jesus Christ, his redemption of us, we remember that he has saved us in this life. He has given us a personal relationship with himself that carries us through this life, forgiving our sins every day, pushing us to live for him. And ultimately carrying us to eternity, where we will live forever on this earth again in perfection.
The redemption that Christ offers through his life and his death, which we celebrate through the cup, is both now and in eternity.
Every time we take the Lord’s Supper, every time we meet in a worship service, every time we interact with a fellow believer, every time we wake up, we should have the focus of the redemption we have in Jesus Christ.
Our focus is Jesus: his life, his death, his redemption.
4. Focus on Jesus: Proclamation
4. Focus on Jesus: Proclamation
Finally, our focus is on Jesus: his proclamation.
For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
Pretty self-explanatory, except how does eating bread and drinking a cup proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes again?
My wife cooks some amazing food. However, I can testify that sometimes when my kids are eating the food, even though they are eating it, they are not proclaiming her amazing culinary abilities. To complain is all to human.
Biblically, remembrance is a participation in a truth that results in a changed life.
This is shown in four ways. In the Old Testament, when someone remembered something they reflected on the truth in a way the resulted in gratitude, worship, trust, acknowledgment, and obedience.
I can think about the Israelites. They had entered the Promised Land. They had conquered it. They had seen the mighty hand of God. But they didn’t remember it.
God led them by judges, who conquered oppressors miraculously, but the Israelites still didn’t remember God. In the middle of all the cycle of disobedience, it is recorded:
No sooner had Gideon died than the Israelites again prostituted themselves to the Baals. They set up Baal-Berith as their god and did not remember the Lord their God, who had rescued them from the hands of all their enemies on every side.
Remembrance is remembering the truth of God and causing that truth to turn us back to God in worship.
Taking Communion is a remembrance, reflecting on the truth and allowing that truth to turn us to God in worship.
Remembrance is also an identity with the past. The Jews every year remembered the Passover, when God rescued them out of Egypt. They would say: This is the bread of suffering, that which was eaten right before they left. These are the herbs. This is the sacrifice. They didn’t believe those things became what was, but they were identifying themselves with the past. They are the Israelites who were rescued by the might hand of God.
When we take communion, we are identifying with Christ’s sacrifice. We are saying that our sin was on the cross. He died for us, earning our redemption. We were there. At the same time, he is here, because he is alive.
Remembrance causes us to remember how we were saved, the radical change that happened in our lives. Truthfully, we let that fire die so easily and become apathetic and callous to the work of God. Remembrance lights that fire again, and urges us to live like we have just experience God’s salvation.
Remembrance, while looking back at God’s work in our lives also looks forward to the amazing eternity that is waiting for us. That he who began a good work in us will complete it in the Day of Jesus Christ. This reflection on the future pushes us to live the future today.
So, Paul says:
For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
Remembrance is a proclamation of Christ’s death, because we are reflecting on the truth not just with our lives, but with our actions. We proclaim his death through a life and lifestyle that comes from our understanding of our identity as Christians who share the identity and mission of Christ.
It’s fitting that the early church would always take communion at the end of the service. They considered it a commitment to the application of the sermon. They would remember what Jesus did and by taking the elements, they were vowing to live the life that Jesus was calling them to, by their actions proclaiming his salvation.
Our worship is to turn our focus back on Christ, so that other’s might see Christ in us every day of the week.
The focus of worship is Christ: his life, his death, his redemption, his proclamation.