Meals of Meaning

1 Corinthians 11:17–34 NIV

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.

INTRODUCTION

If you ever think the work of ministry seems scary, consider this barber.

I heard this one from Chuck Swindoll this week, and I couldn’t resist.

A barber who was growing in his faith realized he needed to take his commitment to Christ to the next level, using his craft as a means of telling people about Him. But as everyone experiences, he realized this work was nerve-racking. But he knew he just had to go for it.

So the next morning, when the sun came up, and the barber got out of bed, he said, "Today I am going to witness to the first man that walks through my door," and he prayed for the strength to do so.

Soon after he opened his shop, the first man came in and asked for a shave, and the barber knew this was his opportunity. So he was lathering him up with the shaving cream while half praying and half practicing what to say, trying hard not to let his nerves get the best of him.

It just so happened that he got his courage and the words he wanted to use just as he was ready to start shaving his customer...and so the barber raised the razor and asked the customer, “Are you ready to die?”

As tensions were mounting between:

Jews and Gentiles

Hebrews and Greeks

Rome and Israel

And even within shared faiths...

As God’s chosen people continued to walk wayward...a meal was being prepared. (P)

This wasn’t just any meal, though it certainly did not seem to be any more noteworthy than the other Passover meals happening in and around Jerusalem that night. It was going to be a private little gathering between just over a dozen men in a subtle, quiet space in the upper floors of an otherwise insignificant house. (P)

But it was in that room and around that table that the most meaningful and powerful meal to date, now known all around the world, would occur. (P)

What made it such a big deal? (P)

There were actually three things that happened in that room that enriched the evening with meaning: the Meal, around which much of the conversation Jesus had with His disciples occured, as recorded in John; Jesus washed the disciples feet, and explained the meaning of that; and He gave the first communion, and explained how that would initiate a brand new covenant, not just for the Jewish people, but now for all who would become believers and followers of Christ.

Later, the Apostle Paul would receive an account of what happened, either directly in a revelation from Christ or from one of the twelve, which he would use to have an important conversation with the church in Corinth, as we see in today’s text. (P)

So what we are going to do is spend the next three weeks discussing these components in detail and seeing how they apply to our role in the church. That’s what Jesus intended for them to be - He was briefing His disciples for the work to come of building HIs church, the foundation of that work would be based on these three parts of that gathering together. (P)

The first one, and the one we look at today, is the actual meal itself. More than just the bread and cup, an entire Passover Meal was served. Researchers suggest that it might have included lamb, beans, fruit, and bread...or some similar combination. (P)

Now interestingly enough, unlike the direct connection with the symbol of footwashing to service, and the symbols of the bread and cup to the body and blood of Christ, we don’t, at first, see the obvious connection between the meal and what that would have to do with the church, but with Paul’s help in 1 Corinthians 11, and exploring some other meals we are familiar with, we can begin to see it a little clearer.

So that is what we are going to do today - look at three different tables that we might be familiar with and that at least have some, if not all, of their roots in scripture, to determine the significance of what the early Christians called the love feast component of the Lord’s Supper. (P)

The first table I would like us to consider for this morning is the: {CLICK}

1. Dinner Table with Family

And the reason I start here is that it uses what we already know, and what we hopefully already experience regularly, to set a foundation for what is to be accomplished at the other tables we talk about today.

I believe the family dinner table sets a benchmark of what we should be seeking from those other meals. (P)

When we gather at the table as a family, several things occur, even if they do so subconsciously:

We recognize a common need. We are all hungry, and our bodies require physical nourishment from food, and our souls require the nourishment of each other’s company as a family. And because of that common need:

We unite around a common remedy. Food and conversation. The meal has been prepared, we eat together as a family, and hopefully, that togetherness will ignite a discussion that will demonstrate a mutual concern for one another.

How was your day?

What happened at school or work?

How can I pray for you?

How can we learn a little more about God together?

Is there anything I can help you with?

You know I’m always here to lean on. (P)

Our commonality reminds us of our dependence on one another. Food doesn’t make itself. Conversations and uncovering those joys and concerns among family members don’t just pop out involuntarily in the middle of the table. We work together in food preparation, setting the table, washing the dishes, and initiating conversation to uncover and meet those needs, and to build those connections.

Our human inability to always satisfy that dependence reminds us of our ultimate dependence on God. I am sure we have all left a dinner table, somewhere in life, dissatisfied with how a conversation went, or how an issue that may have popped up was unresolved. Not everyone who presented a problem at the dinner table was able to find their ultimate solution over that plate of spaghetti, or in the midst of even those most genuine shows of love or concern.

There are just some things that only God can do, but:

That doesn’t mean that the dinner table wasn’t used by Him to uncover those needs.

It doesn’t mean that the dinner table wasn’t used by Him to upset the fruit basket of some deep-seated issues that needed to be brought to light.

It doesn’t mean that the dinner table wasn’t used by Him to bring together the all-important family unit in a way that just doesn’t happen much anymore, and, in some cases, that’s why those issues come up in the first place.

The dinner table for many families is not what it once was, people now eating at different times, not gathering around the table together anymore - at least not without the time being somewhat rushed, and when you are around the table, out come the cell phones - and that’s just not a healthy thing. (P)

You may say, Well, it works for us.

But does it?

I don’t know many families, including Rhonda and me, that when we had to eat in a way other than the relaxed gathering around the table, we didn’t at least wish that it didn’t have to be that way, who didn’t at least comment, we have to find a way to get away from that.

That’s because most people feel it, and most people feel it because they realize the need that truly exists - more than just physical nutrition, there is a nourishment that occurs on the social, relational, and spiritual level, and nothing satisfies all of those hungers like a meal together around the table. (P)

It’s interesting, the older I get, the more I miss gatherings with my family around the table - and I’m talking extended family now. It used to be my grandparents, usually on my mom’s side, and all of their children. So that included my mom, aunt, two uncles, and all of the children they all had. There were four of us older cousins running around, and three younger ones when my siblings came about.

There was nothing fancy about any of those gatherings; we were just together, and the benefits of that togetherness just became obvious throughout the evening.

My grandparents and one cousin are gone, and there has been some splintering in that family, so gatherings as they once were haven’t happened for decades and will likely never happen again, even among those who are left.

Sure, it works, but that doesn’t mean it’s supposed to be like that, because I feel it every holiday that we used to get together...when we had that common celebration and common need that brought us together as a family unit, and we shared that love and connection with one another. (P)

Perhaps the best example we have in scripture of an event that brought families together at the table is found in Exodus 12, what we know today as the Passover, when the angel of death passed over and spared the firstborn children of families who obeyed God and put the blood of the sacrificial lamb on their doorpost.

Nothing brings families together like being that close to death and living to tell about it. The Passover Feast with family and friends would be one of many ways to remember the Lord’s deliverance, uniting together in that common setting to remember together the blessings of God. Nothing brings unity like facing adversity together, and that’s exactly what happened then. (P)

Now there’s much more to be said about Passover, how that led to the freedom they were about to experience, the covenant between God and His people, which we find details of in Exodus 24, broken covenants, and that’s all material for a couple of weeks from now when we talk about how Jesus became our Passover Lamb.

But suffice it to say for today, to get us thinking about our next table, the broken covenant by the Israelites in the Old Testament paved the way for the new covenant in Christ, and the components of that are what we find at the Lord’s Supper in the Upper Room, and our observance of that feast today.

And so it is here we return to and take our place at the: {CLICK}

2. Fellowship Table with Fellow Believers

This is what was started in the Upper Room on that first Maundy Thursday, and if you remember, Jesus wanted this tradition to be carried on through the generations and into the church in remembrance of Him.

And indeed, churches did that...not always perfectly, though, and that’s what’s causing the tense words we find here in today’s text.

The Corinthian church had actually been gathering for one of these feasts of remembrance - they called them agape meals or love feasts back then - but the spirit and attitude and unity we said should be present at the family table was not what people were observing here in Corinth. (P)

This was actually an ongoing problem in this church, which is why we see Paul begin this letter to the Corinthians by gently addressing the divisions, selfishness, and even some social prejudices that were going on in that day.

Right away in chapter 1: {CLICK}

1 Corinthians 1:10–12 NIV

I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. {CLICK} My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household, have informed me that there are quarrels among you.

And then in Chapter 3: {CLICK}

1 Corinthians 3:3 NIV

You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans?

And now, as we come to chapter 11, we see all of this come to a head as these very issues were happening right there at the Lord’s table! (P)

It was interesting to read in my study this week that the early church met much the way we do here today. It’s probably why we do it, in the piety of Alexander Mack and his fellow brethren, they studied the scriptures and tried hard to go back to what they discovered was the ways of the early church...rooted most importantly in the ways of Christ.

And so, like our church, the Corinthians and others would gather to have an entire meal. The bread and cup would be a part of it, but there would be an entire feast around it as well, and that’s where the indulgence we see Paul criticizing would happen.

People would rush to be first; they would pay no mind to the poor who were among them. Paul said that sometimes people would eat and drink so much ahead of the poor that they would actually stuff themselves and get drunk before the poor people would get anything.

Part of the attitude that surrounded that in verse 19 was this competition where some, usually the elite, thought they were more approved or more favored by God than others, and that only fueled this perversion of the Lord’s Supper that Paul speaks of in chapter 11. (P)

And this wasn’t just happening in Corinth. Jesus’ half-brother, Jude, felt led to address this very thing in verses 12 and 13 of his letter to the larger church: {CLICK}

Jude 12–13 NIV

These people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead. {CLICK} They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.

And so Paul’s reminder of the new covenant this meal represents, particularly the elements of the bread and cup, the details of which we’ll discuss in a couple of weeks, serves to give the Corinthian church a reality check.

Why do they gather at the Lord’s Table, and does it in any way carry the same unity in mind we hope to see at our own tables with our family?

Is the point of the Lord’s Table any reflection of the unity He is calling us to that will eventually get us to table number 3 we’re about to discuss? (P)

A.W. Tozer asks this question to the readers of his book, The Pursuit of God, which I want you to consider this morning as you contemplate your place at the Lord’s table.

Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other?

They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow.

So one hundred worshipers [meeting] together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become 'unity' conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.

Is that how we are at Codorus Church - each one so tuned to God individually that we are automatically tuned to each other? (P)

I am so glad that I don’t see any pushing and shoving to get to the bowls of soup at our table here, or that we don’t hog the bread and fight over the butter. Nobody ever denies another a refill on the water if they ask.

But what do your hearts look like as you come to the table?

Do we come with silent, secret divisions?

Are there people we would rather not see at God’s table?

Is there an unresolved reason, an unapologized-for wrong, that might have someone, incorrect as it may be, to feel this way about you, wishing for you not to be at His table?

Do we even know why we come to the table of our Lord Jesus Christ?

Knowing what He has accomplished for us, do we want to be here?

Do we at least understand the basis behind the new covenant made possible by the blood of Christ?

If there is anything off in our relations with each other, then there is something off with your tuning with God, and it must be addressed.

The purpose of our gathering in unity around the table of Christ is to remember the salvation we share, and to joyfully together share that with others. That’s what the new covenant is all about. (P)

I said I would go into detail in a few weeks, but to give a preview once again of what this is about, we look at three quick passages: {CLICK}

Jeremiah 31:33–34 NIV

“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. {CLICK} No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

{CLICK}

Hebrews 9:14–15 NIV

How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! {CLICK} For this reason, Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.

{CLICK}

John 1:16 NIV

Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given.

(P)

Because of the sacrifice of Christ, which this second meal represents, there is one more table we, as Christ’s followers, can look forward to, with even more enthusiasm than we have for even our family’s table, or Jesus’ table in the Upper Room, and that’s the: {CLICK}

3. Banquet Table with Christ

You hear it spoken of in: {CLICK}

Revelation 19:6–9 NIV

Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: “Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. {CLICK} Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. {CLICK} Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.” (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.) {CLICK} Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” And he added, “These are the true words of God.”

(P) {CLICK}

There isn’t much that can be said about this feast, at this point, outside what the prophecy of Scripture reveals, because it is a meal that is still on the calendar for some day in the future.

I don’t know exactly what that day is; nobody but God the Father does.

I don’t know what’s on the menu; nobody but the Father God does.

I don’t know what the dining room will look like or how it will be decorated, only God the Father does.

I don’t even know who all will be there, but I hope you can all say for yourself that it will be me.

I know you will want to be there. As in all the other mysteries of Heaven that have us asking what it will be like, we trust in the perfection of God and the elimination of sorrows, and so we know that it will be paradise no matter what...we know that we want a seat at that table. (P)

I know that no believer will be denied a place.

What I can’t tell you is who those believers are, more than with just their lips and superficial motions, I don’t know who all truly trusts in their deepest depths that their sin has been covered by the blood of the Lamb. That is between each person and God. (P)

I know we all have people in mind who we hope on everything we have that they are there, and if it isn’t us that can reach them, then we pray someone else can. And that is true for every human being on this planet, no matter their past, no matter their background, someone - if only God Himself - wants them to be there, and they need someone to show them the way. (P)

And that’s why this is a team effort among all believers and among the entire church of Jesus Christ. And that’s why unity in His mission is so important, and why our ability to gather to receive that mission and support one another in the implementation of that mission is critical.

And nothing does that like a meal. It sounds silly, but it’s how it’s worked since the beginning of time, be it Passover, the Lord’s Supper, any regular family meal where we gather multiple times per year around a common celebration and need, and it’s why we do it in the church, as we do for Love Feast.

So join us, won’t you, as we gather around the table for Soup and Salad today, and for Love Feast in two weeks. Let our unity be evident in those meals. (P)

CONCLUSION

I love how John Wesley says it:

I want the whole Christ for my Savior, the whole Bible for my book, the whole Church for my fellowship, and the whole world for my mission field.

And that’s where we leave off today, as that is just the first of the three critical components of the Lord’s Supper in the Upper Room.

Next week we look at service - the service Christ was to us, and what service looks like in this establishment we call the church as, united, we seek the common good in all of our fellow human beings - leading ultimately to their salvation, hopefully, but what are we willing to do to help that process along, to be the hands and feet of Christ in service to them?

What does that look like as we do that together as a church?

We’ll pick up there next week, but for today, let’s close in a word of prayer and a song.