Communion 7/7/2019

1 Corinthians 11:17–34 ESV

But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part, for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not. For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when 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 also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. 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. So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another— if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home—so that when you come together it will not be for judgment. About the other things I will give directions when I come.

2 Issues in the Corinthian communion. Both have to do with failing to “discern” the Lord’s Body.

1 Corinthians 11:29 ESV

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

1 Cor.

They were failing to make communion something other than a mere fellowship meal.

1 Corinthians 11:20–22 ESV

When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not.

1 Cor. 11:

1 Corinthians 11:33–34 ESV

So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another— if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home—so that when you come together it will not be for judgment. About the other things I will give directions when I come.

2. They were failing to recognize the equal dignity of all who are Christ’s in the way the rich wouldn’t wait for the poor and ate and drank to excess.

This then gave rise to a 3rd issue:

One group failed to take their union with the other group seriously enough.

And the other issue while it isn’t mentioned overtly here, grows out of when Jesus instituted the Supper.

John 13:1–15 ESV

Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.” When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.

I want to highlight

John 13:10 ESV

Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.”

The point is simple: In Jesus will go on to explain that they - the Disciples - and we, are “clean” through the word that He has spoken to us.

In believing the Gospel, we find cleansing for our sins.

So why then the footwashing here when Jesus acknowledges that those who have bathed, have been fully cleansed - don’t need another full bath? Because we still get dusty, dirty from walking in this present world. As cleansed and as forgiven as we are, we still get dirty.

And how is this to be dealt with? - We are to wash one another’s feet!

And here we are back to discerning the body of Christ rightly.

For you see in the 1 Cor. situation, some Christians were sinning against other Christians in the way they handled the communion table.

And so those sinning, were in need of those sinned against to forgive them. To wash their feet.

And both groups needed to be called to a good “discerning” of the Lord’s Body.

For when we sin against one another, we sin against His Body - not just “them.”

Now in our present context, we prevent the failure to discern the Lord’s Body in the table by separating it from being an ordinary meal, taken for mere sustenance and physical enjoyment.

So far, so good.

But what of failing to discern how this table unifies all those in Christ, and so being careful not to come here in the state of sinning against our brothers and sisters sin Christ?

Perhaps you need to confess that heart and mind before you come tonight. Perhaps there are those in Christ whom you have slighted, sinned against, and need to repent of having done so.

But even more, what of our needing to wash the feet of those brothers and sisters who may have sinned against us?

Will we come to the table tonight, reminding ourselves that He died to cleanse us from our sins, and has called us to wash one another’s feet of their dusty, dirty sins? Especially sins against us?

For how else can we hope to come to the table to acknowledge our unity in Christ - while holding the sins of others against them?

As though the blood of Christ was, is, sufficient for our sins - but not for theirs?

Let’s take our moment once again and ask the Spirit to seach our hearts.

To be sure we discern the Lord’s Body as the sole sufficiency for our own sins.

As the opportunity to discern the joint dignity of our brothers and sister in Christ and repent of any sin against them we need to put away tonight. For I cannot sin against them, without sinning against Him.

And to discern the Lord’s Body in our washing the feet of fellow Christians who might have sinned against us. To acknowledge our union with them in Him. And to serve them in it.