Particip-action: Life is about Whom you partake in and with!
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Dear Congregation,
The number killer in NA for centuries, indeed around the world - has been and is heart disease and stroke. And in the 1980’s our federal government - realized the long-term way to deal with this - was to change the way people lived life - campaign called not Participation, but husband and wife red and white tracksuits body break type exercises Particp-action. Hal and Joanne. Make our lives action not of couch potatoes, bad posture - but various exercise, not just stretches and strengthening - but cardio-activities. The rationale was physical. What is the action - the participation you are choosing for your body - determines length and quality of bodily life!
Well, congregation, the course of our whole life, ultimately body and soul - not determined by what exercises, but very interesting - not what philosophies, religious practices take apart in it, what system of participation in - the big question of participation for all life - is not what or which, but who! Who are you participating in and who are you participating with … Think of it on a non-spiritual level - time spent by those who raised you, friendships of early childhood, the company you keep now, -matter most and influence the shape of your life - really give direction of your life, and determine its quality.
KEY TRUTH: Life is about in whom and with whom you are participating!
KEY TRUTH: Life is about in whom and with whom you are participating!
And spiritually this has always been so: you were made for participation with living God. But what did our Fall into Sin do - Gen 3:5
For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Don’t need to walk with God, don’t need to live in conversation with Him, live by conversation with yourself - you can be your own god, definer of density - - But don’t doubt for a minute that behind that living - their is a spiritual person - the serpent, the devil, sulfurous smell to life like that. Determines the quality of all your relationships, of your whole course of life , … But never really do it all alone, - others living life like that - pull them in - gradually participate with them - like Adam with Eve
A. Having a-God Substitute Involves Particip-action with Demons and other Who Follow Them
A. Having a-God Substitute Involves Particip-action with Demons and other Who Follow Them
And almost symbolically - say: let’s raise a glass, a toast to the gods who give us freedom, who provide for us, - let’s eat the fruit of these gods - let’s banquet as a family meal with our god and our fellows! Religiously it works like this too. Paul reminds these Corinthians, many Gentile, that the paradigm to understand how whole world living in idolatry - twisting idea of true God, making gods in our own image to suit ourselves, is in the Exodus - actually made golden calf - as god substitute and feasted and partied - god of fertility - calf - god pf prosperity, god of drunken revelry - they led us out. Listen to God’s description of the event: Deut 32:17
They sacrificed to demons that were no gods, to gods they had never known, to new gods that had come recently, whom your fathers had never dreaded.
In our lives and cultures today, but what is so interesting is the person behind this kind of twist of life away from the living God - OT LXX demons! IT’s not that our idols are actual gods with any power - empty vanities but listen: 1 Cor 10:20
No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons.
That’s surprising isn’t it? The spiritual participation in your heart-idol and with others following -is ultimately with demons. 1 Tim 4:1 And that way of life, the participation comes with a whole philosophy and teaching of how to live life, and we follow it hook line and sinker. But notice its not teaching of Aphrodite of sexual pleasure as goal of life, nor of Drink Bacchus, nor of wealth Midas , nor of youth - fitness , nor of marriage, family - but its all teaching of demons!
Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons,
Paul says whether formal big religion like OT Judaism or 101 varieties of gods of the nations, it all works the same way: 1 Cor 10:18
Consider the people of Israel: are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar?
Paul is saying you go to your altar - whether stone in Jersualem temple, or neon lights, or glow of computer screen, or - and you are participating, communicants, communing in that god and with those fellow worshippers
Do you remember Paul Simon's take on this, man is incurably religious - always ultimate point of reference, Calvin - human heart is an idol factory. But the big deal is our participation, partaking , our communing in and with that God and others! Paul Simon of our age sang:
And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the sign said, "The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls"
And whispered in the sound of silence
The thing to note in that song and in life, don’t do this individually, even if just online community - to partake signifies association - we are not religious restaurant samplers where visitor s come and go -vertical relationship to your god and horizontal to worshippers you partake with. And it it is in your participating that a bond is formed, welded together and to your god.
And this is where Paul’s instruction to us who are tempted like Israel in the desert places of this world, like Corinthians stationed in the midst of a port city known for carousing, drunkenness, every imaginable god. Church members at Corinth - going to one temple in the day and then gather for Lord’s Supper at night. Go out Corinthinzig through the week than gather with believers. He sympathizes with them says, sulphur temptations to live without real participation in Christ - God provided way out . As I’ve just shown you - shows that living without God, living with any level of participation with idols - spiritual disastrous - but he doesn’t just say negatively - don’t do idols, bad, bad bad. Just do Christianity, just do Christian rituals, come to Christian altar, do Christian rituals, hold teaching of Christ, not teaching of devils. NO Paul does more and positively instructs us to get to the heart of participating not in rules , philosophies, doctrines, practices, morals, but a real participation with a person, the Person, the living God come to Us Jesus .
B. The Lord’s Supper is a Sacrament of Christ’s Action for Us & Ours to Him.
B. The Lord’s Supper is a Sacrament of Christ’s Action for Us & Ours to Him.
Paul has been tackling this problem of participating in idols, but then He says, the way to combat it, the way out f the temptations you face, is v.14 flee idolatry. V15 This is sensible, the prudent action you must take!
1 Cor 10:16
The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?
He is talking of these symbols we call ordinances, because Christ commanded them as tools appended. Why? To the gospel, to root our identity and our faith and our living in Jesus Christ. The chapter 1 Cor 10:1 , opened saying just like Israel baptized into covenant head Moses, -finds pattern of life in Passover deliverance, through the water into new kingdom - drink from v.3 Spiritual Rock in wilderness who is Christ, so too in our baptism - baptized INTO Christ. Baptism an ordinance appended to gospel - make clear our identity - if converted experience and must grow daily in, if covenant child, same entrance in to community - but must come to experience by faith, and live in! Baptism passive, happens to you enter covenant community. Must exercise faith grow into the reality!
But then Paul says, in the battle of the gods, idols, or Living God, - there is another ordinance, ordained / commanded by Christ - and it is one must actively partake in - do in not once for entrance, but again and again to be strengthen, to heighten your hold and experience of all the blessing in the One you orientate your life towards: And here it becomes easy to see why we also call the Lord’s Supper a Sacrament. So used to that word, some uncomfortable because seems just traditional Roman Catholic. But do you know where the word comes from?
The original meaning of the word “sacrament” signifies the oath by which Roman soldiers bound themselves to their general. Thus, it is our oath of allegiance whereby we swear fidelity to Jesus, the Captain of our salvation. Just as the Roman soldiers swore that they would never desert their colors in battle, we also hereby solemnly engage to maintain irreconcilable war against all the enemies of Christ without and within, fighting manfully under His banner against sin, the world, and the devil, and this at the peril of our eternal damnation. Thus, whenever we presume to come to Christ’s Table without this war against sin maintained in our conversation, we become guilty of the body and blood of Christ, incur the awful guilt of perjury, and eat and drink our own damnation, “not discerning the Lord’s body” (1 Cor. 11:29).
For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.
Actually biblical word - for mystery -the New Testament word for mystery. Mark 4:11
And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables,
In a broad sense all religious rites and ceremonies were called sacraments - in Greek mysteries, gospel mystery revealed - Ephesians 3:3 , Romans 11:25, Eph 5 mystery of Christ/Church marriage a sign of, M
how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly.
In time, the term sacrament took on a more precise and narrow meaning.
A sacrament is a visible sign of invisible grace.
by which God offers His promise of grace in an outward form. Outward signs seal and confirm the covenant promises of God. The sacraments consist of some visible element such as water, bread, or wine; a definite activity ordained by God in association with the sign; and a redeeming benefit given to the believer. Sproul, = thing signified reality by faith!
Through these signs the invisible grace they picture, is held before us, and we are to by faith actively take hold of that grace, even as we hold and participate in the physical outward symbols. If you look word up in pocket theological dictionary - Augustine spoke of these acts as “the visible form of an invisible grace” or as a “sign of a sacred thing.” Th2 NTe sacraments are used by God to confirm divine promises to believers and are somehow the means by which the recipient enters into the truths they represent.
i. Wine: His Blood Signifying Spiritual Action:
i. Wine: His Blood Signifying Spiritual Action:
Do you get why Paul says, when we come to this table, if we have saving faith, we are actually participating in the blood of Christ. He is pledging anew to us, that everything his blood represents, all those benefits - I will work that a new in you - forgiveness, victory over sin, new life fused like the sugars of the fruit of the vine coursing through you body - my cup of wrath become a cup of blessing - participation in that! 1Cor 10:16a
The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?
Not just blessing that Christ action overflows to us with, but word actually eucharisto - thanksgiving. At the Lord's Supper - not a bare memorial. Spiritually Christ truly present to those with faith, and he communicates Himself and his benefits The physical supper represents the intercourse between Christ as head and the members His body.
This is why Christ calls His blood to which the wine points, the cup of the New Testament or Covenant, you know last will and testament. When the testator dies, the last will is read out and distributed. The Blood of Christ , emblematically poured out of His heart, is a public declaration: Here is the covenant with the living God - validated by the death , and now the inheritance it to applied and paid out of His will to His people!
How the Old Testament/Covenant worked too: Hebrews 9:19
For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people,
Now covenant of grace fulfilled, and continual sign to seal to us visibly - all those blessing/inheritance A covenant sign like the rainbow in the clouds, no wrath will sweep us away, we are those new life resurrection life in Christ!
And as he communicate his favour and grace, righteousness through his blood to us, we in return lifting up cup of thanksgiving, we are communicating back to him our thanksgiving, acceptance, love and gratitude.
Do understand why unlike baptism - this ongoing participation of Lord's Supper requires a living union with Christ, a part of His mystical body - and the supper after you know that about yourself, is one of the great ways Christ nourishes and supports that new converted life in you!
If we come to the table without this union this living saving faith in Christ the vine, we are like branches cut off and withered, impossible to receive anything at this table. But then there is the sign of the bread. Always broken why? 1 Cor 10:16b
ii. Broken Bread: His Body Signifying Spiritual Action
ii. Broken Bread: His Body Signifying Spiritual Action
The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?
Christ’s body broken for us, not a bone for He was a whole and pure burnt-offering for you and me; but broken why? The broken bread represents his maligned body, torn with scourging and buffetings, pierced by thorns, mails and the spear. Yes broken at great cost - and we are to remember His agony, the mockery, reproach and insults that compounded his misery taken for us on the Cross.
We are to feel it Christ being broken for me: Lam 1:12
“Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which was brought upon me, which the Lord inflicted on the day of his fierce anger.
We are like OT worshippers where to come and put their hand on the head of the the sacrificial animal, signifying the transfer of guilt of all his sins, so too vicarious sacrifice, Christ in my place, I am virtually in their, eat the bread, remember this transaction - and confirmed in gospel truth Hebrews 9:26
for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
The altar isn’t this table, sacrifice not the bread and wine, The altar is the Cross and the sacrifice is Christ, but sacramentally by Christ’s ordinance, we take Christ to ourselves when we come to the table, and He participates with us - His love from heaven he came and sought, on earth he gave His life, the forgiveness won, the condemnation lifted, the victory secured, the release from sins power in effect!
A dying Jesus on the accursed tree conquers death, hell, and sin for you and me; and we fall before Him. Strong in weakness, He triumphed on the cross, “spoil[ing] principalities and powers” (Col. 2:15) and making a show of them openly; “through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Heb. 2:14).
C. Our Particip-action Is the Family Banquet of Christ
C. Our Particip-action Is the Family Banquet of Christ
But our participation is not just in the ongoing saving effects of His blood, nor of His body offered for you. The participation at the table in this sacramental bread confirms in us a third benefit of belonging to Christ, of having him as our Saviour, Provider and God! Look at 1 Cor 10:17
Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.
We are to be partaking with Christ vertically -all his body and blood mean - renewed covenant the testaments benefits, promises and realities sealed anew . But there is also a horizontal participation in Christ and with His followers that happens when you come to this table!
While the one loaf does represent the incarnate, in person in flesh body of Christ, there is also this loaf representing whom we have become. My neighbour look at world, sees so clearly that man is a social animal, mentality of the herd, the tribe, - recognize - we all long to and have been made to be long to a band of brothers & sisters. And this supper is a participation in the most special bond of people in the universe! The one loaf is not just Christ, it is we the many little grains who have have been incorporated in His same loaf.
I once was initiated, basketball team took me to campus bar, didn’t want to partake in debauchery, but to be part of that team, team had to shave my head, like target - take me parade us rookies… no hazing .. but initiation… but Iaw as truly one of them after that.
Well Christ - has said you come to this table in faith, you really eat this bread as a participation in the body of Christ, well you are declaing all one with the Lord, together.
That’s the special nuance of that word: partake - metecho - you can’t do it alone private religion, as a mere visitor. We partake together, even visitors from other congregation, sharing in one loaf of Christ - pledging like those Roman soldiers, this is the reality the forgiveness,s, victory, the battle with sin, my allegiance is to the Lord, we are his body!
I am recognizing behind all the other idols and their participating together, pledging this is what life is all about apart from God, demonic, pulling away form Lord deceiving. Ultimately only two participation in vain idols, fooled by Satan, or in the Lord, by His body and blood, forged into the only corporation, the only body that will last forever. 1 Cor 10:21
You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.
So let us come recognizing discerning and giving thank for the body and blood of Christ, participating in those realities, anticipating Jesus lifting us by His Spirit truly meets us here, but let us also come together to this table, as the big and lasting union of this world, the bond and the body of believers, Church of Jesus Christ - proclaiming Christ redemption His death and resurrection until he come again!
248 I Greet My Sure Redeemer