"The Timeless Tradition" - 1 Cor. 11:17-34

BIG IDEA: Since the Lord’s Supper is a gift of God’s grace given to believers, they should know the benefits of this timeless tradition.

BIG QUESTION: What’s so great about the Lord’s Supper?

I. The Lord’s Supper strengthens Unity (17-22)

Next Time Keep in Mind:

It’s not just about you.

Learn how God is working in the lives of other members in the faith family.

Celebrate the fact that Jesus has made us all one family.

II. The Lord’s Supper Proclaims Jesus (23-26)

Covenant:

In Christ God pledged himself to us through a covenant, which is a committed relationship.

The “New Covenant”

Jeremiah 31:31–34 (CSB)

“Look, the days are coming”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt—my covenant that they broke even though I am their master”—the Lord’s declaration. “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—the Lord’s declaration. “I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know me, from the least to the greatest of them”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “For I will forgive their iniquity and never again remember their sin.

Promises of the New Covenant:

Forgiveness of Sin

Obedient Hearts

Intimate Relationship with Himself

Covenants Accompanied by Signs. Just like a marriage.

Example of Covenant Signs:

Rainbow - Moses

Circumcision - Abraham

Passover - Israel

By visually reminding us of God’s faithfulness, the Lord’s Supper nourishes our faith and feeds our souls. Jesus has given us himself. Through our union with Jesus, our hearts are empowered to live in faith and obedience to God’s commands and in true fellowship with God. The Lord’s Supper is where we taste, in more ways than one, the fulfillment of these promises.

III. The Lord’s Supper Encourages Sanctification (27-34)

The Lord’s Supper isn’t an ordinary meal. This is a mean with royalty; it’s the family table of Jesus our King. when the Corinthians disregarded one another at the Lord’s Supper, God judged and disciplined them with sickness and even death.

The Lord’s Supper is how local churches identify who belongs to Jesus’s family and who doesn’t. Jesus encourages churches to guard their holiness and witness. This is done by Church discipline.

Matthew 18:15–20 CSB

“If your brother sins against you, go tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he won’t listen, take one or two others with you, so that by the testimony of two or three witnesses every fact may be established. If he doesn’t pay attention to them, tell the church. If he doesn’t pay attention even to the church, let him be like a Gentile and a tax collector to you. Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will have been loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you, if two of you on earth agree about any matter that you pray for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there among them.”

1 Corinthians 5:1–13 CSB

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and the kind of sexual immorality that is not even tolerated among the Gentiles—a man is sleeping with his father’s wife. And you are arrogant! Shouldn’t you be filled with grief and remove from your congregation the one who did this? Even though I am absent in the body, I am present in spirit. As one who is present with you in this way, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who has been doing such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus, and I am with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, hand that one over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little leaven leavens the whole batch of dough? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new unleavened batch, as indeed you are. For Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us observe the feast, not with old leaven or with the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote to you in a letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. I did not mean the immoral people of this world or the greedy and swindlers or idolaters; otherwise you would have to leave the world. But actually, I wrote you not to associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister and is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or verbally abusive, a drunkard or a swindler. Do not even eat with such a person. For what business is it of mine to judge outsiders? Don’t you judge those who are inside? God judges outsiders. Remove the evil person from among you.

The Goal of Church Discipline is the restoration of the disciplined to an active member of the fellowship.

In our day and time, when our attention is assaluted on all fronts, the Lord’s Supper affords us an oppotunity to slow down, reflect, and consider our hearts.

Can I Partake of this Timeless Tradition?

Have you turned from your sin and trusted in Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection alone for salvation?

Have you identified with Jesus and his people through believer’s baptism?

Have you committed yourself to Jesus and his people through membership in a local church?

Conclusion: The Lord’s Supper is a means of grace given to the believers in order to strengthen unity, proclaim Jesus, and encourage sanctification.