EATING HEALTHY

EATING HEALTHY 1 Corinthians 11:23-32 With grateful acknowledgement of these sources of direction and inspiration: the Holy Spirit; the Word of God; Jack Hayford, Grounds for Living; Bob Russell and Mark Richison - sermons on the Lord's Supper; Stephen Shoemaker, "The One Handed Over" Feb 16, 2003 Given by: Pastor Rich Bersett [Index of Past Messages] Introductory Before Sunday sermons were invented, before clergy were ordained and churches organized, before church music was created, even before the New Testament was written, Christians gathered for a meal they called 'The Lord's Supper.' Nothing more typifies the Christian faith than this holy meal. From the very beginning believers have drawn spiritual (and even physical) strength from the sharing of the loaf and the cup, symbolic of the body and blood of the Lord. Our text illustrates the centrality of the Lord's Supper in the early church. In fact, Paul goes to great lengths to point out to the Corinthian church that this meal is grounded in an unbroken apostolic tradition. It shouldn't surprise us that a meal has such a prominent place in the faith life of the church. The Gospel stories are filled with instances of Jesus' eating with people. There was something about Jesus and meals. He delighted in table fellowship with the most unlikely characters. From tax collectors to traitors, from prostitutes to political activists, from the outcast to the downcast, Jesus not only ate in their homes, but said identifying with them was one of the signs of his kingdom. The night before he died, he shared the Passover meal with his disciples and He called it His Last Supper. The Passover was a sacred meal for the people of Israel, but Jesus transformed it into a holy meal for his new people, the church. The very next week, after his resurrection, Jesus dropped in to eat with his people. The early church continued the tradition. The Book of Acts is bracketed by the Lord's Supper. Acts 2 says that one of the characteristics of the early church was 'breaking bread.' That's shorthand for the Lord's Supper. Toward the end of Paul's ministry he gathered the church at Ephesus to say good-bye, and it says in Acts 20:7 that it was the first day of the week and they 'broke bread.' From the very beginning, it seems, God intended that His people sharing a sacramental meal in which they would remember His acts of deliverance was very important to Him. God gave the Lord's Supper to his church. Through it He binds us to Christ and binds us to each other. But this meal also binds us to history, to the church through the ages, and binds us as well to eternity. Still today, in the twenty-first century, in honor of His express will, we gather at the Lord's Table on the Lord's Day. There, in churches all over the world, the outcast, downcast and sinners still meet for dinner with God. We continue this unbroken tradition. Paul reminds us that when we eat this holy meal, we ought to do so in a healthy manner. Text - 1 Corinthians 11:23-32 "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. Therefore, 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. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment. When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world." How To Eat Healthy 1. Treat the Communion as a Time of Celebration (11:23-24) In verse 23 we are reminded that the night that Jesus instituted the Communion was the night that He was "betrayed". The Gospel records are clear about the fact that Jesus knew He was about to be turned over to over to those who would eventually kill Him. And the betrayer was a friend of his. Have you ever been betrayed by a friend? A few vicious words, a personal secret shared, a sexual affair, a bank account cleared out, a destructive lie? There is no pain like the mutiny of a friend or lover. This is the most critical night in the earthly life of Jesus. And He is spending it in an upper room with His twelve closest friends, one of whom is about to turn against Him. Nevertheless He assumes the paternal role in the traditional Passover meal, and offers thanks for the bread. Of course, there is much more meaning in the breaking of the bread that night than there ever had been. Jesus tells the disciples that from then on, the broken bread will symbolize not only God's provision, but His body, given in sacrifice. But He goes a step further and says, "…my body, which is for you." In the 1993 hit film "In the Line of Fire," Secret Service agent Frank Horrigan had protected the life of the President for more than 3 decades, but he was haunted by the memory of what had happened 30 years before. Horrigan was a young agent assigned to President Kennedy on that fateful day in Dallas in 1963. When the assassin fired, Horrigan froze in shock. For thirty years afterward, he wrestled with the ultimate question for a Secret Service agent: Can I take a bullet for the President? In the climax of the movie, Horrigan does what he had been unable to do earlier: he throws himself into the path of an assassin's bullet to save the chief executive. Secret Service agents are willing to do such a thing because they believe the President is so valuable to our country and the world that he is worth dying for. Obviously they would not take a bullet for just anyone. But at Calvary the situation would be reversed. At the Last Supper, the President of the Universe said He would actually take the bullet for each of us. At the Cross (and at the Communion Table) we see how valuable we are to God. And it is the will of Christ who instituted this meal that we should remember Him. When we eat this unleavened bread it is our time to remember the Lord's sacrifice and to celebrate the victory He won for us. At Calvary - Mercy there was great and grace was free; Pardon there was multiplied to me; There my burdened soul found liberty - at Calvary! 2. Treat the Communion as a Time of Rededication (11:25) The Reader's Digest carried this story not long ago, sent in by a woman named Barbara: My brother-in-law, who is a minister, responded to a Red Cross appeal for blood donations. When he didn't come home by the time his young son expected him, the boy asked his mother, "Is Dad going around visiting all the sick people?" His mother replied, "He's giving blood." "But we know it's really grape juice, don't we Mom?" When Jesus took the cup to offer a blessing, another part of the traditional part of the Passover meal, he added another dimension to the  meal. He said, "…this cup is the new covenant in my blood". God had made a covenant with Israel in which He made them His chosen people. Now, with His impending, sacrificial death in mind, Jesus announces that there is a NEW covenant. The chosen people would now include everyone who would trust in Him and receive the gift of atonement through His blood. The thing about covenant is that it requires agreement. The only way we can be reconciled to God is through the forgiving sacrifice of His Son, and it is in our accepting His covenant offer that we are reconciled to God. The Lord's Supper is the time to renew that covenant. The evil and temptations of this world, coupled with the weakness of our flesh, cause us to break fellowship with God through eroded devotion and outright sin. Though God has given us power through His Spirit living in us to live victoriously over the world, the flesh and the devil, we do not do well with sustained obedience to the Spirit's leading. But we have the promise of the Father that if we will admit our sin and genuinely repent, He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Early in 1993 British police accused two ten-year-old boys of the brutal murder of two-year-old James Bulger. The two boys pleaded innocence. The young defendants responded to police questioning with noticeable inconsistency. The climax came when the parents of one of the boys assured him that they would always love him. Confronted with irrefutable evidence linking him with the crime and the assurance of his parents' love, the boy confessed in a soft voice, "I killed James." The miracle of God's love is that he knows how evil we are, yet he loves us. We can confess our worst sins to him, confident that his love will not diminish. Christian, here's what that means to you and me - when you slip back into a sinful lifestyle, there is forgiveness for you if you will come to Him in humility and ask for it. What a great time to "come clean" and admit our sin and unworthiness-at the Lord's Table where we are invited to renew our covenant with Him through the forgiveness of our sins. Just before communion was passed the minister suggested, "Today as you pass the bread and cup, whisper to the person beside you, 'The body of Christ, broken for you.' And whisper, 'The blood of Christ, shed for you.'" An elderly woman went to pass the elements, but she couldn't remember the exact words. So she handed it to the person next to her, paused and whispered, "Take it. It's for sinners"! She didn't remember the words, but she understood the meaning. Treat the Communion as a Time of Celebration, a time of Rededication, and 3. Treat the Communion as a Time of Proclamation (11:26) Paul says in verse 26 that every time we participate in communion ("as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup…") we are making a PROCLAMATION of the Lord's death until He comes. We are restating, each time we eat and drink this memorial, the fact that Jesus paid it all. To take communion is to preach to everyone around that there is forgiveness of sin available because of the atoning death of Jesus, and we are testifying that we need that forgiveness and have received it by faith. Does it change your approach to our weekly observance of communion to know that you are testifying about the gospel when you eat and drink it? For centuries the Lord's Supper has set Christian services apart from other religions. You know, it would be a far less mystifying service to a visiting non-believer if we just cut out this business of sharing bread and wine, wouldn't it? And we could probably get out 10 minutes earlier! Dr. William H. Willimon wrote: "Last week, I saw an advertisement entitled, 'CAPPUCCINO AND CHRIST.' Under a coffee mug the ad read: 'Sleep a little later, throw on some jeans, have a hot cup of Joe, listen to some great music and get together for some wonderful fellowship . _____________ Church invites you to join us for a unique service that offers an alternative. No pressures, no commitments, no hassle. All we ask is that you to give us forty-five minutes of your Sunday.' This is the 'user-friendly church.' This is the church which is proving to be useful in a grimly optimistic, willfully evasive contemporary world. We use everything we touch for our own devices and desires. Why not use the church as well?" But the user-friendly church is not the church of the suffering Messiah-the church that 'proclaims the Lord's death' to a death-defying and death-denying world. To a world seeking glory, success, power, comfort and an easy happiness, we preach Christ and him crucified. And it is exactly what the world needs-to know that the God who made them, the God they have rebelled against, has come in suffering love to reclaim them. Please consider something else. It is not only the other believers and non-believers in the room to whom you are proclaiming the Lord's death. The earlier part of 1 Corinthians 11 makes it clear that angels are looking in on the worship experience of Christians. In verse ten where he is arguing for propriety in worship Paul gives one of the reasons as "because of the angels". Our involvement in the Lord's Supper (as well as our singing, our encounter with the Word, our giving, our fellowship) is all under angelic scrutiny. Proclaim the Lord's death with confidence and assurance. By the way, proclaiming His death "until He comes" is the Spirit's way of reminding us that the Lord's Supper is ours until the Great Supper. 4. Treat the Communion as a Time of Examination (11:27-30) Paul gives very straightforward counsel to the church about how each individual should come to the Communion Table. It should never be in an "unworthy manner" he says. The rest of chapter 11 helps us understand what kinds of behaviors and attitudes made up an "unworthy manner." Disrespect, division, selfishness, prejudice and even drunkenness are included in that ignoble list! That these things were being exercised at a communion service only makes sense to us when we realize that the Lord's Supper was usually observed in that era along with a meal. But is it far-fetched to think that wrong attitudes and behaviors might also detract from a communion service today as well? Maintaining honest and healthy relationships with others makes up a very large part of our Christian lives, and the New Testament bears that out repeatedly. In verse 29, Paul says "…anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself." You only have to look as far as the next chapter to see what "the body" means to Paul. Beyond the physical body of Jesus, it is the members of His body, the church, as well. What we have here is apostolic counsel that eating healthily at the Lord's Table must include having right relationships with the others with whom we meet at the Table. To NOT have healthy relationships while taking communion brings some interesting consequences to the believer. One is ill health, even death (verse 30). I won't go into what all that means because, frankly, I don't know. But I would urge us to take it at face value and trust that our being in right relationship with other is very important. Then Paul talks about judgment. Since we are dealing with Christians, we know this is not the eternal judgment of hell. Rather this judgment refers to the chastening of God in the lives of His children. Basically, we need to see the Lord's Table as God's time to straighten us up. The main point here is that we ought to judge ourselves. If we will examine ourselves and see what needs fixing, then repent and fix it by the power of His Spirit, then we will avoid God's more exacting work of chastening. One five-year old who was usually in Children's Church joined his parents in adult worship one Sunday, and he watched intently as his parents received communion. His mother noticed him looking at his daddy who, after taking the communion elements, was reverently bowed in prayer. She thought, "What a good parental example. Just then the five-year old leaned toward her and whispered: "What's in that stuff? You eat it and go right to sleep!" Communion should be a time of examination-our motives, attitudes and behaviors toward the Lord and toward one another. When our relationship with God or with others is not healthy, taking communion will mean we are eating and drinking judgment on ourselves (verse 29). But we need this regular, weekly time of self-examination, so we can make things right. The Lord's Supper is the perfect time for such course adjustments-when the family comes together. Take the time to confess and repent of your sins before the Lord, including and especially relational problems, and let the Spirit of Christ correct and re-direct you. 5. Treat the Communion as a Time of Rejuvenation (11:31-32) It is always God's intent through discipline to strengthen and revive us. God's chastening is always redemptive. He loves us like a Father-that is, like a father OUGHT to love His children. Every provision, every loving touch and every act of discipline carefully designed to make us more mature. "When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world" (verse 32). Let me tell you what the Lord wants for you. • He does NOT want you to go on walking around in guilt and condemnation. So He gave you Communion to take care of sin. • He does NOT want you to remain miserable because of messed up relationships. He gave you the Lord's Table as a place of healing. • He DOES want you in full fellowship with Him, with all your sins forgiven and cleansed from all unrighteousness. So He gave you a weekly appointment with Him and His family to repent & grow. • He DOES want you walking out your life in healthy relationships, full of His Spirit. So He gives you the Lord's Supper as an opportunity to renew covenant with Him and get spiritually rejuvenated. When Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon with Neil Armstrong, one of the first things he did was to stop and have communion. He wrote, "I called back to Houston, 'Houston this is Eagle. This is LM (Lunar Module) Pilot speaking. I would like to request a few moments of silence. I would like to ask each person who is listening in to give thanks in his own individual way." For me, he later reported, this meant taking communion. I opened the little plastic packages that contained bread and wine. I poured the wine into the chalice. In the 1/6 gravity of the Moon, the wine curled gracefully up the cup. It was interesting to think that the very first liquid to be poured on the Moon, and the very first food eaten there were consecrated elements. Just before I partook I read "I am the vine you are the branches. Whoever remains in Me and I in him will bear much fruit for you can do nothing without Me." There's a well-known painting of the Vietnam Wall. In the painting a young widow and her daughter are standing at the wall and they reach up and touch the name of the father and husband who has died. The reflection in the polished granite is not of the mother and daughter. The reflection in the wall is that of the husband, the father, the soldier who is reaching out his hand to touch theirs. That's the Lord's Supper. We come as redeemed people needing to recommit our love and devotion to the Lord, needing another administration of His forgiveness, another reminder of His acceptance. We arrive at the Table and reach out our hands to take this unleavened bread and this fruit of the vine. And in response to our act of faith, the hand of Jesus in a mystical way comes to touch our hands. And we are healthy again, by His grace. Conclusion We've discussed the scripture's teaching on how to eat healthy at the communion table. Sometimes we learn best by reverse psychology. With that in mind, let me close with a quick list for your consideration: Six simple ways to ruin communion. Six Simple Ways to Ruin Communion 1. Be as lackadaisical as you can If you want to ruin communion, be sure to look at the whole communion experience as drudgery, an empty, meaningless ritual. This way you will ensure that no spiritual challenge or unusual God encounters will mess up your otherwise uneventful morning. And by no means, should you show outward evidence of enthusiasm for the things of God, lest you provoke others to love and good deeds. Remember, "glum" is very chic for the spiritually unexcited. 2. Avoid self-examination at all costs You certainly don't want to stir up a perfectly comfortable nest. When it comes to secret sins and messed up motives, denial is the best policy. If you want to maintain your carnal equilibrium, don't look in the basement of your heart. It's ugly down there. 3. Meditate on your hurts and grudges To effectively maintain mediocrity in the Christian life you must not miss any opportunity to lick your wounds. Bringing up old hurts and insults that others inflicted on you, and meditating on them is quite useful to the disciple who is disinterested in growing as a disciple. So, to ruin communion, never, under any circumstances, use your time at the Lord's Table as an opportunity to forgive or worse yet ask for forgiveness from any other member of the body of Christ. Who needs all that harmony and unity? 4. Be as negative as possible Use every chance you get to think disparaging thoughts if you want to ruin your communion experience. Remember the time-honored favorites-"Who chose that background music?" Or you can bemoan the weekly observance of communion ("It's too frequent and it loses its meaning" - which, of course, is a self-fulfilling prophecy!). Of course, there's the old favorite, "How come I always end up at the same table with them?" refraining from positive, edifying thought will ruin communion every time. 5. Do not pray Perhaps the most dangerous activity for rocking your spiritual boat is Prayer. Remember the rule: give it lip service because everyone expects you to pray, but never get serious. Serious praying will always make communion more meaningful. So if you want to avoid personal revival, just look spiritual: bow your head, close your eyes and catch a few winks. 6. Be as noisy and disruptive to others as possible There's one thing more satisfying than ruining communion for Yourself, and that's doing your part to ruin it for others. So, once you have had your early moment at the table, make as much noise as you can to distract those who came to the Table after you. Use the usual methods-loud conversation about anything unspiritual, jokes and laughter seem to be quite effective. Whatever you do, avoid using this time in a spiritually productive manner by reading scripture, meditating on something the Holy Spirit is showing you, or worst of all, making new commitments to the Lord. That's no way to ruin communion. But, for those who would rather use communion as a time of Celebration, Rededication, Proclamation, Self-Examination and Rejuvenation . . .     [Back to Top]