Sermon Tone Analysis

“Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord.

Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.

That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.

But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged.

But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.”[1]

"We must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ” [*2 Corinthians 5:10*].

This knowledge serves to restrain many of God’s people from pursuing evil.

Christians live with the knowledge that they will face a divine review of the conduct of their lives.

They know that there is a day in which they will stand as open books before the Judgement Seat of Christ.

This is not a judgement to determine if the Christian is saved or lost; it is a judgement of the conduct of their lives since believing.

However, Christians even now face judgement on an ongoing basis.

Those who preach the Word are judged on an ongoing basis by the Lord; and they know that they are subject to greater scrutiny as their ministry is reviewed.

Our conduct as Christians is judged by the world who watches to see how we conduct our lives.

How many people are turned from considering the Faith by wickedness in the lives of professed saints of the Most High God?

We are responsible to be discerning about the way fellow Christians live, holding one another accountable before the Lord.

In our text, the Apostle instructs those participating at the Lord’s Table to judge themselves, or face judgement by the Lord Himself.

*An Invitation to Judge Ourselves* — The text presents an invitation to judgement.

Either we will judge ourselves whenever we approach the Lord’s Table, or we are informed that the Lord Himself will judge us.

We are urged, therefore, to engage in self-judgement before we partake of the Meal.

The criterion for self-judgement is our view of the Lord’s Table.

The basis for self-judgement is our attitude towards worshipping the Lord Jesus.

The purpose for self-judgement is to ensure that we worship according to the will of the Lord.

Each of these points is vital, demanding that as Christians we understand what we are doing.

The Criterion for Self-Judgement is Our Understanding of the Lord’s Table.

Do we observe a magical rite?

Does participating in the Meal make an individual holy or somehow more acceptable to God?  Do we come before the Lord only to be judged on how perfectly we perform the ritual?

If we heed the teaching of much of Christendom and agree with the attitude of the most of those who participate at one time of another, the Meal is magical, a means to make us acceptable before the Lord, and we must therefore perform the ritual precisely.

However, neither in the institution of the Meal nor in the prescriptions for conduct of the Meal are there found such sentiments.

When He instituted the Meal the Master “took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body’” [*Matthew 26:26*].

Had He offered His arm and said, “Bite Me,” the disciples would have been repulsed.

However, they understood that the bread He broke was symbolic.

Had they any doubts concerning the fact that drinking from the cup was symbolic participation in the blood of the Master, they would have surrendered any such doubts when He took the cup and gave thanks before offering it to them.

He said, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” [*Matthew 26:28*].

Jesus stated that He offered juice and not blood—the same juice they had just drunk at the Passover celebration; and even had there been misunderstanding concerning what was offered, that misunderstanding would have been cleared up when the Lord Jesus added, “I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s Kingdom” [*Matthew 26:29*].

During previous messages I have stressed my belief that the majority of evangelical Christians have transformed the Meal until it is difficult to recognise what it was meant to be.

The Meal is now a Christian ordinance rather than a church ordinance.

No longer is the Meal strictly a congregational act of worship, subject to the oversight of the church, but it is now a sacrament subject to the desire of the participants.

This transformation of the Meal is in keeping with the stress on democratic decision-making among the churches, rather than consensus after prayer and appeal to the Word of God.

In other words, modern Christians will loudly demand their rights, even at the Lord’s Table, rather than humbly submit to the Lord of the church.

The overwhelming sentiment of modern evangelicalism is that the rite is a private act of worship which may only incidentally be shared with other worshippers.

The presence or absence of other Christians is secondary to what individual worshippers seek and feel.

In keeping with this novel view, parents will decide when and whether their children, including infant children, partake of the Meal.

In fact, modern parents take umbrage should the officiants speak against the practise of giving the elements to unbaptised children.

Despite how people feel about the Meal, and disregarding the poor, or even absent, instruction concerning the Meal from contemporary pulpits, we are challenged to adopt a biblical view of the Lord’s Table.

Paul teaches the Corinthian Christians that believers make three confessions as they participate at the Meal.

They confess thanksgiving to the Lord for salvation.

The Meal is for those who know Christ Jesus as Lord.

He makes the point that “as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death” [*1 Corinthians 11:26*].

Indeed, we participate in remembrance of the Master’s sacrifice.

The bread reminds the believer that His body was given for His people, and the juice reminds participants that His blood was poured out on behalf of His people.

The Meal provides opportunity to confess fellowship, both with the Lord and with the church which exercises oversight over the Meal.

Paul reminds the Corinthians that it is when they “come together as a church” [*1 Corinthians 11:18*] that they observe the Meal; it is in assembly.

Earlier, he had stressed that participating in the Meal was a participation in the blood and the body of Christ [see *1 Corinthians 10:16, 17*].

He drives this point home when he writes, “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread” [*1 Corinthians 10:17*].

In the Communion Meal, we show fellowship in regard to redemption and to the very life of Christ.

The Meal is not for confession of sin, but for confession of fellowship.

The worshipper confesses through participating at the Lord’s Table that he or she is living in anticipation of the Lord’s return, for the churches are to continue observing the Lord’s Table until the Master returns [*1 Corinthians 11:26*].

In effect, the Lord’s Supper is a means for renewing courage and~/or hope because the worshipper lifts his or her heart to recall the promise Jesus gave His disciples: “If I go an prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to Myself, that where I am you may be also” [*John 14:3*].

Self-Judgement Exposes Our Attitude Concerning Worship of the Lord Jesus.

Throughout the instruction Paul has provided the Corinthian Christians is ongoing rebuke of self-centred Christianity.

Too many of the church members came to the Table to fill their bellies and to get drunk, whether other members of the congregation had anything to eat or whether they were destitute.

Participants were focused on their own comfort rather than on the welfare of others.

Such attitudes displayed an appalling lack of recognition of the Lord’s presence.

As we have seen in previous studies, in the ancient church, the Lord’s Supper appears to have been observed following what was known as the Agape, or Love Feast.

This was much like what we speak of as a potluck meal.

Following the service of instruction, Apostolic Christians gathered to fellowship around a shared meal, at the conclusion of which they observed the Communion Meal.

Their actions at the Agape reflected their prevailing focus on their own interests—a focus that occupied much of the Apostle’s concern expressed in this letter.

Paul had begun the  letter by noting the development of factions within the congregation, with some following Paul, some following Apollos, some following Peter, and some super pious saints declaring that they followed Christ [see *1 Corinthians 1:10-17*].

The divisions within the congregation were so great that the witness of the church within pagan society was threatened [see *1 Corinthians 3:1 ff.*].

In fact, the factions paralysed the congregation, causing inability to perform difficult tasks when such were called for [see *1 Corinthians 5:1-13*].

They were even insisting on their rights to the point of filing lawsuits against one another [see *1 Corinthians 6:1-8*].

The self-life led increasing numbers of them to flaunt the freedom they enjoyed in Christ without thought of the impact of their lives on fellow believers [see *1 Corinthians 8:1-10:33*].

Yet other members of the congregation were ignoring courtesy and common morality by dressing and acting without regard for the impact of their actions on others [see *1 Corinthians 11:1-16*].

Are you surprised when I say that a congregation in which many, if not the most, of the membership is focused on what makes them feel good is incapable of pleasing God?  Regardless of however much they would have protested that they were actually worshipping, the Corinthians were unable to know the full blessings of God.

Consequently, God had already begun to remove some of the most egregious offenders—some through illness and some through death.

It was discipline of the most extreme sort because these individuals, while claiming to worship the Risen Saviour, were actually promoting their own interests.

The Corinthian church was no longer functioning as the Body of Christ; it was just another religious society—fundamentally undifferentiated from the pagan religious societies about them.

God appoints us as members of one body, and we are expected to build one another in the Faith.

If we cannot worship together, joining our hearts as one, we will not build one another.

Christians who do not build one another will not comfort one another or encourage one another.

Building one another in the Faith, mutual encouragement and comfort for fellow worshippers necessarily result when the people of God function as God intended [cf.

*1 Corinthians 14:3*].

When members of the congregation focus on how they feel as individuals—and even on how they feel as families—rather than focusing on how to fulfil their ministry as members of the Body of Christ, the result is at best a dysfunctional church, and at worst a congregation that destroys the testimony of Christ in the community.

The Purpose for Self-Judgement is to Correct Errant Attitudes.

The criteria by which we are to judge ourselves are the truths Christ has declared concerning the Meal.

Approaching the Table, we are to judge our attitude toward worship, for that attitude reflects our view of the Lord.

We must be thorough, probing deeply to discover hidden motives that lurk in the dark reaches of our mind, ruthlessly ridding ourselves of all known contamination.

The purpose for judging ourselves before partaking of the Meal is often misunderstood.

Some people imagine that judgement is a means for exclusion from the Meal.

However, self-judgement is actually meant to prepare us for worship.

Judgement presents the opportunity for us to bring our minds into conformity with the mind of the Lord.

Judgement provides us opportunity to fine-tune our hearts so that our actions honour Him Whom we worship.

Christ calls us to worship; but worship will never occur if our attitude is wrong.

Therefore, God calls us to confront errant attitudes, bringing our will into conformity with His perfect will and submitting our attitudes to control of His Spirit.

We are to discern the body and blood of the Lord when we eat and drink.

We are to recognise the Lord’s Body.

In no small measure this means that we are responsible to recognise our fellow worshippers, giving thanks for the work that God has done in their lives even as He has knit us together as one Body.

Before partaking of the Meal, I urge each member participating to take time to give thanks for the Body to which God has joined us.

I encourage you to review what God has done in our midst and what He is even now doing here.