Grace OPC Sewickley PA

Sermon Book: 1 Corinthians

Fellowship in Christ’s Body and Blood

About this sermon

Paul warns the Corinthians by Israel’s example. The Israelites ate spiritual food and drank from the rock that was Christ, yet God struck them down for idolatry and immorality. The cup and the bread of the Lord’s Supper are a real sharing in the body and blood of Christ. Those who share the Lord’s table cannot also share the table of demons, and interfaith worship that refuses to confess Christ falls under the same warning. Believers must flee from idolatry, and Christ offers pardon to all who have strayed.

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Sermon transcript

This evening we’re going to take a little break from our study of the Psalms to consider a passage that has to do with what we’re going to be doing this evening, and that is celebrating the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. We’re going to consider this evening 1 Corinthians chapter 10. Our focus will be on verses 14 through 22 of 1 Corinthians chapter 10. In order to give sort of the fuller context, I’m going to begin reading at verse 1, but again our focus will be especially on verses 14 through 22. So let us hear God’s holy word. First Corinthians chapter 10 beginning at verse one. For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea and all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink for they were drinking from a spiritual rock. which followed them, and the rock was Christ.

Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well pleased, for they were laid low in the wilderness. Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things, as they also craved. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink, and stood up to play. Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day. nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed, that he does not fall.

No temptation has overtaken you, but such as is common to man. and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it. Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as to wise men. You judge what I say. Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. Look at the nation Israel. Are not those who eat the sacrifice the sharers in the altar? What do I mean then? That a thing sacrificed to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything?

No, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. And I do not want you to become sharers in demons. 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. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? We are not stronger than he, are we? The grass withers and the flower fades with the word of our God. Please join me in prayer as we seek the Lord’s blessing upon the preaching of his word. Gracious Father in heaven, once again, open our minds and our hearts to behold wondrous things from your word and grant unto me, your unworthy servant, the grace to declare and speak forth your word with clarity and power.

We pray that your spirit would attend and bless the proclamation of your word this evening. for our spiritual benefit and blessing, and for the glory and honor of Jesus Christ and the salvation of the lost. We pray these things in Jesus’ name, and all of God’s people said, Amen. Congregation, you may be seated. Well, dear friends, the title of my sermon this evening is Fellowship in Christ, Body and Blood. fellowship in Christ’s body and blood. Well, dear listeners, whether you and I realize it or not, Jesus Christ is confronting us this evening. Right now, the Lord Jesus Christ is confronting you and me. First and foremost, he confronts us in the Word of God, the Bible, as that Word is read and as it is proclaimed. We believe that Christ is really present by His Spirit as the Word goes forth.

But He also confronts us in the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. Just as God in His inerrant and infallible Word summons us to trust in Christ and Christ alone for our salvation from sin and to live under His Lordship, so in the Holy Supper God symbolically summons us through these outward signs and seals to trust in Christ’s atoning sacrifice and to live our lives in fellowship and communion with the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ. As Reverend Stevenson was sharing this morning in his sermon on the occasion of of Catherine Kinney’s baptism, the purpose of a sign is to point beyond itself to something outside of itself. And these signs and seals point us, not to themselves, but to Jesus and to the salvation that he offers to us in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And while the Lord’s Supper as a sacrament is primarily God’s pledge to us, believers, that we partake of the benefits of his sacrifice, his broken body and his shed blood, the Lord’s Supper is also a summons from God to renew our faith commitment to our covenant Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Believer, when you and I partake worthily, that is by faith, of the Lord’s Supper, not only do we enjoy spiritual fellowship in the benefits of Christ’s broken body and shed blood, not only do we receive the assurance of God’s saving love for us and of Christ having died for our sins, not only do we receive the assurance of God’s covenant faithfulness to us, The assurance that he who has begun a good work in us will indeed carry it through to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

But also, friends, when we believers by faith receive the Lord’s Supper in a worthy manner, we also renew our faith commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ. Some evangelical churches of a revivalist sort will have rededications or opportunities to come forward and rededicate their life to Christ. Every time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, it is an opportunity for us believers to rededicate ourselves to the one who, by grace, dedicated himself for our salvation on the cross, dying for our sins and rising for our justification. By partaking of the elements of the Holy Supper, we make a silent but symbolic public confession of our faith in and our loyalty to the Lord Jesus Christ, our very own Lord and Savior. through these simple symbolic actions of eating the bread and drinking from the cup. You’re not only saying in those actions, I trust in Christ as my Redeemer and Savior.

You’re also saying Jesus Christ is my Lord. I am for Jesus and for his body, the church. By his grace, I am committed to him and I intend to live my life in close communion and fellowship with him. as his faithful, loyal follower. In the Lord’s Supper, we, brothers and sisters, we are confronted with the question of where our ultimate loyalty rests. Is our ultimate loyalty to the Lord Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen and reigning Savior? Or is our ultimate loyalty to someone or something else? Here we are confronted with a question of loyalty And we are urged to judge for ourselves as sensible people the implications of our participation in the Lord’s Supper. Well, beloved, our passage for this Lord’s Day evening is deep and rich. We do not have time to overturn all of the stones to look at every aspect of this passage we have before us this evening.

But we can get a general sense from this passage of some of the issues that were going on in the church at Corinth. Beloved, from our text for this Lord’s Day evening, we can infer that there were some members of the Corinthian church who were ignoring this obligation of undivided loyalty to Christ that their participation in the Lord’s Supper placed upon them. It appears that some of these Corinthian Christians were compromising their loyalty to Christ by continuing to participate in the festivities and the sacrificial meals that took place in the pagan temples that were found in the city of Corinth. Now you may wonder, well, why would these believers do that? Well, let’s try to understand a little bit about the situation there in the ancient city of Corinth. If you know anything about the city of Corinth, it was a city that was famous, or rather infamous, for its immorality as well as its saturation with idol-worshipping paganism.

The city of Corinth and its social life and every aspect of its life, family life, social life, economic life, was saturated with pagan idolatry. Now many of the Corinthian believers had been converted to Christ from pagan backgrounds. But apparently some of these believers had trouble breaking fully with their pagan past. And there may have been many reasons for this. This may have been especially the case with those who had unsaved pagan family members, since apparently many social and family activities took place within the precincts of pagan temples and within the context of religiously pagan sacrificial meals. Allow me to quote And this is not too lengthy of a quote, but I’d like to quote from Simon Kistemacher’s commentary on 1 Corinthians, where he explains a little bit about this background and the situation that Paul is addressing here in our passage.

He says this, Does Paul’s injunction to flee idolatry contradict his earlier statement where he seems to allow the strong Corinthians to eat in the dining hall of a pagan temple? He’s referring back to chapter 8, verse 9. And Dr. Kistemacher says, no, not at all. First, notice that in the context of chapter 8, verse 9, Paul limits Christian liberty. He permits freedom as long as it does not become a hindrance to fellow believers. Second, in chapter 8, verse 10, Paul speaks about the act of eating in an idol’s temple. But in this verse, in the passage we’re considering this evening, Paul calls attention to idolatry itself. He goes on to say, Kistemacher goes on to say, When the Corinthians enter a pagan temple and participate in festivities that are related to the worship of an idol, they sin against God.

They must know that their presence in a pagan temple at the time of a feast constitutes an affront to God. With the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, God prepares his own table at which he is the host and believers are his guests. The table in a dining room of a pagan temple and the table of the Lord belong to two diametrically opposed religious contexts. So that, my friends, is the issue going on here, which the Apostle Paul is confronting in this passage. Again, it appears that some of the Corinthians tried to justify this continued participation of theirs in these pagan festivities. Perhaps their reasoning went something like this. Perhaps they thought, You know, we know that there is only one true and living God. We know that an idol in the idol temple, that that idol doesn’t really exist.

That so-called god or goddess does not really exist. So, we can continue to attend these pagan sacrificial meals and festivities without compromising our loyalty to Christ. After all, those pagan gods don’t really exist, and we don’t really worship them in our hearts, even though we’re present at pagan worship services and enjoy of the food associated with those pagan sacrificial feasts. But, you know, we just want to use this as an opportunity to spend time with our pagan friends and family members. This is where they’re hanging out. We just want to go hang out with them, right? Well, with all of this background information in mind, let’s dive into our passage for this evening and consider, first of all, take to heart, beloved, the command to flee from idolatry. Verse 14 of our passage for this evening.

Consider first and take to heart the command to flee from idolatry. This is an apostolic command. This is a commandment written by Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Paul writing as an apostle, an official representative of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what does Paul write in verse 14? He says, therefore, And maybe you’ve heard the saying, whenever you read, especially in Paul’s writing, a therefore, what’s the question that should come to mind? What is the therefore there for? What is it referring to? Well, he’s referring back to the earlier part of this chapter, where Paul talks about the situation among the ancient Israelites. The ancient Israelites, their spiritual circumstances were parallel in some ways to that of the Corinthians. The Israelites had been baptized, if you will, into Moses, under the authority of Moses, in the cloud and in the sea.

They had partaken of manna from heaven. They had eaten this spiritual food, this food that God had provided for them, just as the Corinthian Christians had been baptized and partook of the Lord’s Supper. And yet, with most of them, God was not well pleased. because they were guilty of idolatry and immorality, the two chief sins that characterized the city of Corinth. And so based on that background information that Paul describes in the first part of this chapter, Paul says, therefore, therefore what? Or whom? Who’s he addressing? Therefore, my beloved. Notice Paul’s Paul’s stance towards these Corinthian believers. If you read the Corinthian correspondence in the New Testament, the Corinthian church was a messed up church. It was a messy church. These folks, they were saints, they were called out of paganism to faith in Christ, And so Paul rejoices in their position in Christ, and yet this was a church where, I mean, there was all kinds of stuff going on.

There was backbiting, there was schism, there was sexual immorality going on in the church, people were getting drunk at the Lord’s Supper, and there were marital issues, there was all kinds of problems and issues in the Corinthian church. And Paul could have, you know, we could envision Paul getting so frustrated with them that he says, won’t you people listen up? Paul could have taken a very harsh and nasty tone, but instead he addresses them as my beloved, my beloved. Paul loved these brothers and sisters in Christ, messed up though they were, in need of much counsel and instruction as they were. Paul loved them. He cares for them. And yes, he rebukes them. Yes, he confronts them. But he does so out of love. And what does he say to them? Does he say, you might want to think about avoiding idolatry.

It may not be a good thing for you. He kind of soft-pedaled the idolatry thing. No. Notice his language. Flee from idolatry. Don’t dabble in it. Don’t play with it. Flee from it. Be done with it, turn away from it, free from it. And then he appeals to them. And we’ll talk about this in a few moments, but he goes on saying in verse 15, I speak as to wise men, you judge what I say. So he commands them and then he appeals to them and reasons with them. Well, beloved, what the Corinthian Christians were involved in, is what we would call a form of syncretism. Syncretism is combining true Christianity or elements of the true faith with elements of false religion. And at least in terms of their behavior, some of these Corinthians were doing just that.

They were worshipping with their fellow believers, they were celebrating the Lord’s Supper together, partaking of the Lord’s table, but then they would go and they would participate in pagan festivities. and partake of the table or the altar of a pagan deity. And this is idolatry and this is inconsistent with loyalty to Jesus Christ and his Lordship. Beloved, the lesson we glean here is that syncretism in any form and idolatry of any type are completely inconsistent with a life of communion, a life of fellowship, of Koinonia, as we’ll see in a few minutes, a life of spiritual communion and fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. For example, let me kind of bring this up to date here. You know, we don’t tend to see too many pagan temples in our land today, do we? I have seen a few.

I remember when we lived back in New Jersey, there was actually a Hindu temple that we would occasionally pass on the road or that I remember driving past. So you might find some, and of course there are places of worship where the religion is a false religion. But in terms of actual pagan temples where there are idols that you bow down and worship, there are, you know, very few. Although we could perhaps argue that our Catholic friends in some of their cathedrals and spaces of worship, they have idols that they incorporate into their worship practice. But the average Christian, or at least the average evangelical and reformed Christian, is not confronted with the temptation of overt idolatry. But think about it this way. We live in a country that has Christian values. We are a nation that was formed in part with Judeo-Christian values, and that’s a good history.

But there is this thing called American civil religion. And the God of American civil religion is the lowest common denominator deity. It is not the sovereign, holy, triune God of Holy Scripture. It is simply what I’ve heard one preacher describe as the spare tire God. You remember after 9-11, some of you, I remember this, those of you who were alive then, there was a lot of religiosity after that terrorist attack on our nation. There were a lot of interfaith worship services where Protestants and Catholics and Jews and other religionists would get together and have worship services and call out to God as an expression of national patriotism and loyalty. I would suggest to you, brothers and sisters in Christ, that you cannot consistently participate in the Lord’s Supper and then go and participate in so-called interfaith or multi-faith ceremonies or events or worship services where Christ will not be confessed as the one and only way to salvation.

To engage in such interfaith or multi-faith worship events or services is to engage in an act of anti-evangelism. It is, in essence, communicating to the non-Christians who participate in those services, well, you can approach God your own way. We approach God through Christ, but hey, you can choose your own way. That’s not the gospel. Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. You’re either for Christ or you are against him. There is no neutrality. Our Lord Jesus Christ will tolerate no rival loyalties in the lives of his professed followers. I’m reminded of what the Lord Jesus said in his famous Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew chapter six, verse 24, where Jesus says, No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and wealth. Wealth can be an idol. You cannot serve God and wealth. It’s not wrong to have wealth, but you cannot serve wealth as if it were a God or anything else for that matter. Christ demands on our undivided loyalty beloved. So let us heed the apostles call to flee from idolatry. But next, as we move on in our text for tonight, consider next some sensible reasons why we are to flee from idolatry and other sins that would compromise our loyalty to Christ. Consider some sensible reasons why we are to flee from idolatry and other sins that would compromise our loyalty to Christ. And here the Apostle Paul gets into the details. Verse 15, Paul says, I speak as to wise men, you judge what I say. In other words, he’s commanded them, he’s addressed them as his beloved, but now he reasons with them, he appeals to them, and he does so from a pastoral heart.

And he says this. Notice verse 16. This is a central verse in our passage for this evening. Paul writes, Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? What’s he talking about there? He’s talking about the cup that is administered in the Lord’s Supper. How does he describe it? It is a cup of blessing, a cup of thanksgiving. We blessed it. And it is a sharing, a fellowship, a koinonia in the Greek, a sharing in the blood of Christ. And then he goes on to talk about the bread. Is not the bread which we break a sharing, a communion, a fellowship, a koinonia in the body of Christ? Now, our Catholic, as well as our Lutheran friends, will look at this verse and say, aha, see, the contents of the cup and the bread, obviously, miraculously become the body and blood of Christ.

Because it says, when you partake of the cup of blessing, you’re sharing in the blood of Christ. When you eat of the bread, you’re sharing in the body of Christ. But friends, that’s not, as we’ll talk about in a few moments, that’s not what Paul is saying. The cup represents the blood of Christ. The bread represents the body of Christ. But we do partake of the benefits of Christ’s atonement, his broken body and shed blood. We partake of the benefits of Christ’s atonement in a special way when we partake of these elements with faith in what those elements point to. Remember, they’re signs and seals. We don’t look to the signs themselves for salvation. We look beyond the signs to that which the sign points to, namely the broken body and shed blood of Christ, his atoning sacrifice on the cross.

We learn here in verse 16 that worthy participation in the Lord’s Supper is a real living communion, a real fellowship in the saving benefits of Christ’s broken body and shed blood. And therefore, that being the case, if that’s what the Lord’s Supper means, it’s not just snack time. It’s not just merely a mental remembrance. Oh yeah, Jesus died for me, his body was broken for me, his blood was shed for me. I’m remembering that mentally. No, it’s much more than that. It’s an actual participation, communion in the benefits of his broken body and shed blood through faith in him. And therefore, that being the case, you cannot participate in the Lord’s table and in the table of demons. Again, in the original context here, this was Paul is talking about real idol worship that the Corinthians were still engaged in, some of them at least.

So he says in verse 20, no, but I say, I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrificed, they sacrificed to demons. The Corinthians were saying, hey, we know that these idols, they don’t exist really. These gods don’t really exist. So there’s no harm in, in being present at these pagan festivities and even participating in them. And Paul says, no, no. It’s true that these gods and goddesses, these idol gods, don’t really exist. But he goes on to say, what the Gentiles sacrifice to their so-called gods, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. And I do not want you to become sharers in demons. Behind false religion, behind idol worship, is the demonic. To engage in and participate in pagan idolatrous worship, of any sort is to commune with the demonic. And Paul says, you can’t go to Holy Communion, you can’t go to the Lord’s table and then turn around and go and participate with demons.

What fellowship has light with darkness? What fellowship has Christ with Belial or Satan? None whatsoever. So Paul is reasoning with them. Now again, as I pointed out in verse 16, the Lord’s Supper is a real communion in the benefits of Christ’s body, broken body, and shed blood. But contrary to the Roman Catholic view, it is not a corporal or carnal communion. We’re not engaged in a form of cannibalism when we partake of the Lord’s Supper. The bread is still bread. The fruit of the vine, either grape juice or wine, remains the fruit of the vine. But nevertheless, Through these means, we, by the Spirit and through faith, participate in the benefits of his broken body and shed blood. I like how our Confession of Faith explains this. If you turn to Confession of Faith, chapter 29, sections 6 and 7, you’ll find that on page 937 in the back of your hymnal, your Psalter hymnal, 937.

Let me just read sections 6 and 7. Section 6 deals with transubstantiation. It says this, that doctrine which maintains a change of the substance of bread and wine into the substance of Christ’s body and blood, commonly called transubstantiation, that’s what our Catholic friends hold to, by consecration of a priest or by any other way is repugnant not to Scripture alone, but even to common sense and reason, overthroweth the nature of the sacrament, and hath been and is the cause of manifold superstitions, yea, of gross idolatries.” And then section 7 says, “…worthy receivers, outwardly partaking of the visible elements in this sacrament, do then also inwardly by faith, really and indeed, yet not carnally and corporeally, but spiritually, that is, by the Holy Spirit, receive and feed upon Christ crucified and all the benefits of his death, the body and blood of Christ being then not corporeally or carnally in, with, or under the bread and wine, as our Lutheran friends believe, yet as really but spiritually present to the faith of believers in that ordinance, as the elements themselves are to their outward senses.” In these Bible-based teachings of our confession, both the Catholic view as well as the mere memorial view, the view that it’s just a mental remembrance, are dismissed as unbiblical.

It is a real communion and fellowship, though not a corporeal or carnal fellowship. What is the proof that the Lord’s Supper is a real participation in the benefits of Christ’s broken body and shed blood? We’ll look at verse 18. Paul goes on to say, look at the nation of Israel. He gives an example from Israel’s history. And he says, are not those who eat the sacrifices sharers in the altar? What do I mean then? That a thing sacrificed to an idol is anything or that an idol is anything? Again, he’s already denied that. But he says that the Israelites, when they When they offered their sacrifices and ate of their sacrifices, some of the Old Testament sacrifices involved the worshipper eating a portion of that sacrifice, he says that they share in the altar. Now, when the Israelites ate of the sacrifice, they didn’t participate in the altar in the sense that they literally ate the altar itself.

Rather, Paul means that by eating the sacrificial meat, the Israelites participated in the benefits of the altar upon which the sacrificial animal was offered. We also see, as Paul reasons with the Corinthians, urging them to flee from idolatry, he also points out that the Lord’s Supper symbolically displays our unity in Christ. Look at verse 17. Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. But Paul, what about Wonder Bread? What about the little cubes and all of that? Now, again, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that that’s a bad or a wrong thing to do, but it seems pretty clear that the early Christians apparently partook of a single or common loaf as well as a common cup in their celebrations of the Lord’s Supper.

There were no Wonder Bread cubes or little plastic cups that they used. Again, I’m not saying that that circumstance is wrong for us to utilize today. But what does all of this have to do with the issue of idolatry and the danger of compromising our loyalty to Christ? Well, the answer, my friends, is that by participating in the Lord’s Supper, we not only confess our communion with Christ, we also confess our communion with Christ’s people, the Church. Just as you cannot have fellowship with Christ and fellowship with the demons, so also you cannot have spiritual fellowship with Christ’s people and spiritual fellowship with idolaters. After all, idolaters are spiritually the children of the devil. Those who are apart from a saving union with Jesus Christ are, you know, they are creations of God, they are children of God by creation, but they are children of the devil with respect to their spiritual status. before the Lord.

God has to redeem them and regenerate them, bringing them out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of His love, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, beloved, because the Lord’s Supper is a real spiritual communion with the Lord Jesus Christ and a powerful symbol of our Christian unity, we cannot with consistency participate in both the Lord’s Supper and in idolatrous practices or other practices that would compromise our loyalty to Christ, and that is the thrust and the point of our passage for this Lord’s Day evening. And so, in conclusion, beloved, let me ask you, dear listener, where do your loyalties rest? I want you to ask yourself that question. Where does my ultimate loyalty rest? That which is of ultimate importance to you is, in fact, your God. If that is yourself, hey, I’m the most, I’m looking out for number one, then you worship yourself.

That’s the most common form, probably arguably the most common form of idolatry today. Where does your loyalty rest? Does it rest with the Lord Jesus or does it rest with the demons? Remember, there’s no neutrality. There’s no middle way. You are either for Christ or you are against him. Where will you take your stand? The Lord’s supper confronts us with that question. But brothers and sisters in Christ, we know that as followers of Jesus, we do not follow him perfectly. We know that our hearts are constantly wandering away from him. And though we often, in so many ways, compromise our loyalty to Jesus Christ and are guilty of idolatry of the heart in so many ways, yet our Lord does not abandon us. He continues to extend his mercy to us and call us away from idolatry back into his loving arms.

And so, however, you answer that question within your conscience this evening, if your conscience accuses you that you have not lived up to your promise to unswervingly be loyal to the Lord Jesus Christ, if your conscience accuses you, your Savior offers to pardon you. He indeed continues to pardon you, believer. as you rest in him and him alone. So believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, rest, receive and rest upon him and continue by his grace to fight against sin and follow him out of gratitude for his amazing gift of salvation. Amen. Let us pray. Our Lord and Father in heaven, sovereign and eternal God. We praise you for the gospel We praise you for Jesus, who is at the heart and center of the gospel. We praise you, Lord Jesus, that you laid down your life to redeem us from sin.

Lord, we know that you call us to flee from idolatry. We know that we all, all of us, have fallen short. We have all been guilty of worshiping idols, if not of silver and gold and wood, idols of the heart. And so, Lord, we are guilty. And yet we thank you that you continue to call us back to yourself. And so once again, we plant ourselves at the foot of the cross and we thank you that your mercies are new every morning and that your covenant faithfulness remains and that you who have begun a good work in us will indeed continue to carry it through to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. May that be where our confidence and our hope rests. We pray these things. In Jesus’ name, and all of God’s people said, Amen.

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October 9, 2022
Is Christ Divided?

About this sermon

The Corinthian church split into factions, some saying ‘I am of Paul,’ others ‘of Apollos,’ ‘of Cephas,’ or ‘of Christ.’ Paul asks, ‘Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you?’ Believers share a common calling as saints and a common hope, and God will confirm them to the end. Christians must not idolize any teacher, however gifted, because unity in Christ is not optional.

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Sermon transcript

Turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 1. I’ll read verses 1-17. Dear friends, let us hear God’s holy word. Paul, called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Sosthenes, our brother, to the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, that in everything you were enriched in Him, in all speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you, so that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

God is faithful through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment. For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe’s people, that there are quarrels among you. Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ. Has Christ been divided Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one would say you were baptized in my name.

Now I did baptize also the household of Stephanus. Beyond that I do not know whether I baptized any other. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever. Please remain standing as we seek the Lord’s blessing upon the proclamation of His Word. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the Holy Scriptures, your inerrant, infallible, authoritative Word. We ask, O Lord, that by your Spirit you would Open our minds and hearts to behold wondrous things from this passage of Scripture. We ask that You would grant unto me, Your unworthy servant, the grace to declare Your Word with faithfulness and clarity and power.

And we ask, O Lord, that Your Word would indeed find a lodging place in our souls and bear spiritual fruit in our lives. Be with us now. Be present, Lord Jesus, by Your Spirit in the proclamation of Your Word this evening. We pray these things in Your name. Amen. You may be seated. The title of my sermon this evening is, Is Christ Divided? There’s a number of key words you can be listening for. Well, my dear Christian friends, fellow disciples of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the letters or epistles of St. Paul the Apostle are deep and rich and weighty epistles, and they had a profound effect upon the development and spread of Christianity in the first century Roman Empire. Through God’s sovereign hand of providence, Paul was raised up to be a theological genius, and from a very early date the Apostolic Church recognized Paul’s writings as bearing the marks of being specially inspired by the Holy Spirit, and thus they have taken their rightful place as part of the canon of Holy Scripture and are rightly recognized as being part of the written Word of God.

So this is not just Paul writing a letter to this church expressing his personal opinion. Paul is writing in his capacity as an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, and thus he is writing under divine inspiration, being carried along by the Holy Spirit to write what he writes in this part of Scripture. Now, most of Paul’s letters are what scholars call occasional letters. That is to say, Paul wrote his letters, most of them at least, to address particular occasions or circumstances in the life of the early churches to which he wrote. Paul’s epistles to the Corinthian church, known to us today in our Bibles as 1st and 2nd Corinthians, are just such occasional letters. In 1st Corinthians, Paul is writing in response to various issues and problems and pastoral questions that face the members of that particular congregation, the church in Corinth.

And while the Corinthian church was blessed with many, many spiritual gifts, gifts of the Holy Spirit given for the edification of the body, it was a church that was also plagued with many problems. These problems included things such as divisions in the church, pride, litigation amongst its members, sexual immorality, idolatry, abuses of the Lord’s Supper, including some folks getting drunk at their celebrations of the Lord’s Supper, abuses of the spiritual gifts, and so on and so forth. This was a church that, you know, sometimes we idealize the churches of the apostolic age. We sometimes say, oh, if we could only be like the New Testament church, like the churches in the days of the apostles. Well, reading 1st and 2nd Corinthians. Those churches also had, the church at Corinth certainly had problems and the apostolic churches likewise had problems and issues just as churches today do.

And of these many serious problems confronting the church in Corinth, it would seem that the biggest problem was the division and factionalism among the members of the church. Throughout this epistle of 1st Corinthians, Paul makes it clear to the Corinthians, and therefore also to us, that no divisions are acceptable in the church of our Lord Jesus Christ, at least not the kinds of divisions that the Corinthian church was experiencing. When did Paul write this letter? Well, Paul wrote 1 Corinthians probably while he was in the city of Ephesus and probably sometime in the spring of either 53, 54, or 55 AD. As one commentator writes, Paul’s goal in writing this epistle is that, He wants them to drop their divisive one-upmanship, build up the faith of those who are weak, and witness effectively to unbelievers.

Well, dear ones, in light of the fact that we are scheduled to celebrate the Lord’s Supper this evening, I thought it might be encouraging and helpful to preach a sermon on the importance of unity in the church. And while in preaching from this passage, I’m not meaning to suggest that Grace OPC faces the same kinds of challenges and issues that the first century church of Corinth did. Nevertheless, this epistle offers us a great deal of wisdom and guidance as a church. Indeed, it offers wisdom and guidance for all of Christ’s church, and I believe that we would do well, beloved, to heed the divine instructions that are contained in this marvelous, divinely inspired letter known as 1 Corinthians. So first of all, let’s focus on our passage for this evening. I want to have you focus first of all on the first three verses.

We’re not going to have time to meticulously take apart and look at every word and phrase and so forth of this lengthy passage this evening in verses 1 to 17, but we’re going to try to cover the broad points that Paul is hitting in these verses. So let’s focus first of all on the first three verses. We learn in those verses that our Christian unity is rooted in our shared position as sanctified ones, that is to say, as those who have been called to be holy, called to be saints. Our Christian unity, our unity in Christ, is rooted in our shared position as sanctified ones, as those who have been called to be holy, saints set apart. As was customary for the letter-writing customs of the time, Paul begins his letter with his signature. Now, when we write letters today, we usually, we begin letters with Dear So-and-So.

I know letter writing is not a very common practice nowadays with texting and emailing and all of that, messaging, but if you’re going to write a letter today, you start with the recipient of that letter, Dear So-and-So, and then there’s usually an opening greeting, there’s the contents of the letter, and then you sign your name at the end. In the custom of letter writing in the first century, you would first identify yourself. You, in a sense, put your signature first, and then you would address the ones to whom you’re writing. And we see that in verses one and two. Paul identifies himself, and notice how he starts off. Paul, called as an what? An apostle of Jesus Christ. What is an apostle? As one commentator puts it, an apostle is, quote, someone commissioned directly by Christ as his authoritative messenger.

Some of the problems in the Corinthian Church, this commentator points out, involved challenges to Paul’s authority. So, given that some in the Corinthian Church were questioning Paul’s apostolic authority, Paul begins not only identifying himself, but also reminding them that, hey, I’m not just writing, you know, writing you a personal letter. This is, I’m writing in my capacity as an apostle. of Jesus Christ by the will of God. And Sosthenes, our brothers. Who is Sosthenes? Well, perhaps, again, this commentator says that Sosthenes is perhaps the same person mentioned in Acts 18, verse 17, ruler of the synagogue in Corinth at the time of Paul’s first visit to the city. And so Paul, writing in his capacity as one whom Christ himself, the risen Lord Jesus Christ himself, is called to be an official representative and spokesman for for himself, writing in his capacity as an apostle, Paul addresses this church, and notice how he describes the church at Corinth.

He describes it as the church of God. He doesn’t say, I’m writing to you my dear church, the church that I started, or, you know, it’s the church of God, the church that belongs to God and is from God, to the church of God, which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus. Notice that emphasis on being sanctified in Christ Jesus, in union with Christ Jesus. Sanctified, set apart to belong to Jesus Christ. Saints by calling, with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours. Why does he emphasize in verse two, not only his address to these particular believers at Corinth, but reminds them of that what he has to say is relevant to everyone in all places who name the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.” Well, again, as another commentator puts it, because the Corinthians have a tendency towards self-centeredness and disunity, Paul reminds them that in Christ they are spiritually united to all Christians in every place.

Paul is, in other words, emphasizing here what we might call the Catholicity of the Church, the unity of the Church throughout the world, not in the sense of the Roman Catholic Church, but in the sense of the universal Church. all of true believers in all places who confess together a common faith, a common trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and confess the truth of God’s Word. And so we see, Paul is making the point that our Christian unity is rooted in our shared position as sanctified ones. Sanctified ones, set apart ones who share a common unity with everyone, everywhere, who names the name of Jesus Christ, with a true saving faith. A couple points of application here. Believers understand that we are already, in principle, sanctified in Christ Jesus saints by calling, as verse 2 tells us.

And Paul here is referring to what the theologians would call positional sanctification. The theologians sometimes make a distinction between positional sanctification and progressive sanctification. Positional sanctification means that for all of those who are in union with Christ, if you are in saving union with Christ, from the moment of your effectual calling and conversion, from that very moment, you have been set apart to belong to Jesus Christ. You’re already a saint. There’s a conception out there of sainthood and saints that says, well, the saints are super spiritual Christians. If you are a Christian, One who trusts Christ as your Lord and Savior. You are already a saint. You say, well, I certainly don’t always feel like a saint. I certainly don’t always act like a saint. But if you are in Christ and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, you are, positionally speaking, a saint.

And along with positional sanctification, the Spirit comes to dwell within us and He begins to progressively sanctify us. conforming us more and more into the image of Christ, enabling us more and more to die unto sin and to live unto righteousness and obedience. But here, Paul, it would seem, is focusing on positional sanctification to underscore his call for unity in the church. The challenge, beloved, the challenge and adventure of discipleship is learning to live out in our daily practice what we already are in principle before God because of his sovereign grace to us in Christ. See, if Christ is truly your savior, then you are already a saint, a sanctified or holy one. Christian, are you living in practice like the saint? You already are, that God has already made you in principle by his sovereign grace.

And also, again, understand that Paul is addressing the church. We sometimes forget the fact that most of the correspondence, most of the epistles in the New Testament, whether by Paul or Peter, or John, are written not to individual Christians, but to local churches with a definite membership. Most of the New Testament is corporate, and it’s focused in that sense. We need to remember that. And so Church of God, what are the implications of that? Well, Church of God, since we share a common position and a common status before the Lord as His holy ones, as His saints, Let us treat one another as brothers and sisters in Christ who share a common calling as saints. Let us not harm the communion of saints through divisive attitudes or behaviors. Instead, let us manifest the holy status that God has graciously bestowed upon us by making every effort to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.

So we are already united in Christ because of our status as sanctified ones. But next, as we move on in our passage, and I would have you focus now on especially on verses four through nine. Notice, beloved, that the hope we share in common is a hope that should strengthen our Christian unity as we make our pilgrimage to glory. The hope, the Christian hope, which is not just, oh I hope so, but it is the sure and certain promise of eternal salvation that we share in common because of our union with Christ. That common hope should strengthen our Christian unity as brothers and sisters in the body of Christ as we make our pilgrimage together to glory. Look at verse 4. I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus.

If you’ve read 1 Corinthians, you know that later on, in fact, pretty soon, Paul is going to get into issuing some pretty stern corrections and rebukes because the Corinthian church has a lot of problems. But he starts off reminding them, again, of the grace that was given to them. He had already pronounced the apostolic benediction upon them in verse 3, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And by the way, as an aside, that apostolic salutation that he gives in verse 3, notice that God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ are mentioned in the same line by implication. This implies that the Lord Jesus Christ is equal in divinity, in Godhood to God the Father. And then, as is customary, Paul gives his opening thanksgiving. And what does he thank God for when he thinks of the congregation at Corinth?

Notice he starts off with Thanksgiving. He doesn’t start off with lamentation like, oh, Lord, what a messed up church. I got to deal with all these and address all of these problems, these pastoral issues in the church. No, he thanks God for God’s grace given to them. Verse four, I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God, which was given you in Christ Jesus. And then he kind of fleshes that out a little bit in verse five, that in everything you were enriched in him, in all speech and all knowledge. They were gifted with speech gifts and knowledge gifts and so forth. Verse six, even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you, how is it confirmed in them? Well, verse seven, so that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

What’s he talking about when he talks about the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. He’s talking about our Lord’s glorious future second coming. You see the point he’s making here, beloved, the hope he’s speaking of here. This is the hope that God is faithful to sustain us to the end so that we might be found blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ when he returns in glory. As he goes on to say in verse nine, God is faithful. That is such a precious truth, beloved. God is faithful. When he promises something, he keeps his promises. He carries through with what he says he’s going to do. God is faithful through whom you were called. And that’s the effectual call, the call of salvation. You were called into fellowship. That’s the saving fellowship with his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, not just Jesus Christ, my Lord, as an individual believer.

But again, everything is calculated to remind him of their corporate identity and their unity in Christ. Beloved, not only do we share a common status and position before the Lord as his set apart ones by his sovereign grace, we also share a common hope, a common destiny. We who know Christ are all heading in the same, to use a fancy term, we’re all heading, brothers and sisters, in the same eschatological direction. And we’re not just heading there as isolated individuals, we’re heading there together. We’re on this journey together. God has called us out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the son of his love in whom we have redemption and forgiveness and life eternal. Again, when the New Testament uses the term hope, it’s different from the way that we often use the term hope.

You might say something like, I hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow. You’re expressing a wish, but a wish that may or may not come to pass. Or I sure hope that I do okay in that exam that I’m taking. Again, you’re expressing a wish, a desire, but not a certainty. But when the Bible talks about our Christian hope, it’s talking about something that’s in the future, but it is certain. And that hope in particular is eternal salvation. If you’ve trusted Jesus Christ through sovereign grace as your Lord and Savior, your eternal destiny, your salvation is assured. It’s just that you don’t presently experience the fullness of that salvation. You are already in Christ, you’re already saved, but you are also being saved through sanctification, progressive sanctification, and you will be saved ultimately, consummately, at the final day in your glorification.

And so, beloved, Again, we share a common hope, and this hope that we share in common should strengthen our Christian unity because we are making this pilgrimage to glory together. Again, a couple points of application. I know we’re doing an overview of this passage. There’s a lot of other things that could be said about these verses, but we have limited time. But a couple points of application I want to make here. First of all, the Corinthian church was a very gifted congregation. They were gifted with many gifts of the Holy Spirit and the Corinthian church in particular, we read that many of these gifts were supernatural sign and revelatory gifts. Sign and revelatory gifts that were appropriate and confined to the first century apostolic church. They were gifts that were conveyed by the laying on of the apostles’ hands and they were gifts that enabled the church at a time in redemptive history when the New Testament had not been completely written, it was still in the process of being written, and so God would give gifts like prophecy and speaking in tongues and interpretation of tongues and so forth, as sign gifts confirming the early Apostolic Church.

Now that we have the Scriptures, we are not to expect those particular sign gifts today because we have the completed Word of God, but nevertheless, The Lord continues to grant his people gifts of the Spirit for the building up of the body. And the Corinthian church was just overflowing with these gifts of the Spirit. But even though they had many spiritual gifts, they had very little, it seems, in the way of the fruit of the Spirit. The presence of abundant spiritual gifts in their congregation did not of itself produce spiritual fruit in the life of their church. I believe this is instructive to us, brothers and sisters, because it indicates that the presence of spiritual gifts does not of itself guarantee spiritual maturity or spiritual fruit, namely the fruit of the Holy Spirit. And what is the fruit of the Holy Spirit, children?

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. What is the Lord more concerned with that you have great oratorical skills, or teaching skills, or if you lived in the first century, that you could speak in tongues, speak a language that you never learned, or that you could prophesy, or do works of miraculous healings, or what have you. Is that more important to the Lord, or is it more important to the Lord that you manifest Christian love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? It is the latter, beloved. The gifts of the Spirit, beloved, were and are to be exercised in service to the fruit of the Spirit. But sadly, in the Corinthian context, they were not being administered that way. The fruit, the gifts of the Spirit were instead being used as a source of pride and boasting amongst the believers in that congregation.

So we need to keep this in mind. The OPC has many, God has gifted the OPC with wonderful intellectual and theological gifts, and we praise God for that. But as we praise God for those intellectual and theological and academic gifts, we also need to pray that those gifts would be used by us to nurture the fruit of the Spirit. The Spirit uses those gifts to produce and and support and in service to the fruit of the Spirit. Another reminder from this passage is that we serve a faithful covenant-keeping God, a God who will complete the work He has begun in us. And so, dear believer, hold fast your confidence that God will preserve you in His grace to stand blameless on the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, as Paul writes, and I love this verse, verse 9, God is faithful.

He doesn’t make promises with his fingers crossed behind his back. He doesn’t speak with a forked tongue. God is faithful. He means what he says and he says what he means. God is faithful through whom you were called into fellowship with his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. He will confirm you, as verse 8 says, to the end, blameless in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. So trust in him and continue walking in faith and repentance in your daily life. He who began a good work and he will carry it on to completion. But finally, beloved, since Christ himself is not divided, we who are his body, his church, must not be divided by worldly things such as personality cults, hero worship, or factions. Christ himself is not divided and thus we who are united to him, we who are his body, must not be divided by worldly things, whatever those things may be, personality cults and hero worship factions in particular.

And Paul addresses this in some depth here, especially in verses 10 through 17. Now, before I kind of summarize verses 10 through 17, forgive me if I get a little bit autobiographical, but let me share with you that back in the earlier days of my ministry, when I served an OP church in New Jersey, And I think it was my first year as an ordained minister of the gospel. So I was new in the ministry. I was young and still had a lot to learn. I remember, though, during one of my sermons offering some criticisms of a popular television preacher for some serious doctrinal errors that this particular preacher was promoting in one of his books. Now, there was a dear Christian sister in the congregation at the time. who got very upset with me because of the fact that I would dare to criticize, even criticize by name, this particular celebrity preacher whom she held in such high esteem.

Now, if you’ve sat under my preaching for a time, I hope you know, brothers and sisters, that I don’t usually make it my practice to criticize preachers by name from the pulpit. But in this particular case, I felt at the time that I was right to offer a warning to my congregation about the false doctrine that this particular man was preaching. I think I tried to make it clear, look, I’m not saying everything that he says is bad or wrong or, you know, off on the deep end, but this particular preacher was preaching, you know, I’ll just give you a summary. He was preaching an antinomian gospel. He was preaching a gospel that basically, you know, You make a decision for Christ, and as long as you’ve done that, it doesn’t matter whether you are continuing the faith.

You could even become an atheist later on, and you’re still going to be saved because you made that decision for Christ. It’s that kind of easy-believism, as it used to be called, sort of this antinomian gospel that he was promoting in one of his books. And this is a very popular preacher. And this dear sister in Christ was upset with me for bringing him up by name and criticizing him. from the pulpit. Now, I admit that I probably could have been a bit more diplomatic and nuanced, probably I could have been a little more pastoral in the manner in which I raised this concern and criticized this particular preacher, but what struck me about this Dear Sister’s reaction is that it seemed to be a symptom of a really common problem in the American church, and that is the problem of cults of personality and devotion to celebrity preachers.

You know, the world has its celebrities, right? Usually actors, musicians, entertainers, talk show hosts, or today, social media influencers, and so forth. But do we in the church also lean towards having our own celebrities? You bet we do. The danger here is that our devotion to our favorite celebrity preacher can tend to outweigh our devotion to the truth of God’s Word. And this is similar to what is going on in the Corinthian church. Look at our passage here, beginning in verse 10. Here Paul gets to his first exhortation and correction of the people. He says, Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment And then he talks about how Chloe’s people, Chloe was apparently a prominent church member, perhaps she had opened her home for the church’s services.

This was a prominent member that was reporting to Paul that there were quarrels among the believers in the Corinthian church. And then Paul describes what those quarrels consisted of. Verse 12, now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, I am of Paul and I of Apollos and I of Cephas. and I of Christ. You know, some of them were saying, well, we’re above it all. We’re of Christ, right? But then he asks this probing question. Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? And he talked about how thankful he was that he didn’t baptize too many people in the Corinthian congregation, lest they look to him. as their favorite preacher and baptizer and so forth, and he reminds them in verse 17, Christ did not send me to baptize, that wasn’t his primary calling, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, which the Greeks in Corinth would have valued, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void.

He calls them in verse 10 to be united in the same mind and the same judgment. This could literally be translated as agree, literally say the same thing. In other words, avoid party cries, be mended. The Greek could be translated as be mended, be united. Beloved, in closing, while we can be thankful for the teachers and preachers and theologians and professors that our God raises up to lead and instruct his church at the same time. Let us be warned against factionalism and against exalting any man above Christ, even if that man happens to be a gifted servant of the Lord.” You say, well, come on. We in the Reformed faith, we don’t do that, right? Well, I am of Luther. I am of Calvin. I am of Knox. I am of Machen. I am of Vaughn.

I am of Van Til. I am of Sproul. We don’t talk that way. But my suspicion is the temptation in our reform circles is to think that way. These are all godly men that the Lord has used to instruct his church and we can benefit from their gifts and praise God for those gifts and use those gifts. But these two were men with clay feet. These were men who were imperfect in their sanctification. So let us learn from them. But let us not be factionalist. Let us not be followers of men, but followers of Christ. And finally, beloved, take to heart the fact that by way of application, take to heart the fact that Christian unity in the church is not an option. Division in the body of Christ is not acceptable. Instead, let us realize that we are all one in Christ Jesus already.

So let us live out in our church and amongst each other in our daily lives. Let us live out the implications of that unity which the Holy Spirit has already granted to us in union with Christ, our common Lord and Savior. Amen. Let us pray. Our Lord and Father in heaven, we do thank you, Heavenly Father, that you have poured your spirit upon the church and you have united us together as one body of Christ. We all have a part to play in that body. We are all members one of another. We ask, O Lord, that you would give us grace as a congregation and as individual believers to live out the implications of our common unity in Christ. And we pray, Heavenly Father, that you would give us the grace to avoid all forms of factionalism or hero worship.

We pray, Heavenly Father, that Christ would always be front and center. We pray, Heavenly Father, that we might seek him, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at your right hand. We pray these things in Jesus’ name, and all of God’s people said, Amen.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

August 14, 2022
If no resurrection, then what?

About this sermon

Some in Corinth denied the resurrection of the dead, and Paul answers them in 1 Corinthians 15:12-20. If Christ is not raised, gospel preaching is empty, faith is worthless, the apostles are false witnesses, and believers remain guilty and enslaved in their sins. Scripture, the eyewitnesses, and the Spirit’s testimony assure the church that Christ is risen. His resurrection gives believers gospel confidence and grounds the church’s worship on the first day of the week.

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Sermon transcript

This morning, I’m going to be taking a little break from our studying in the Gospel of Mark, and we’re going to consider a resurrection passage from 1 Corinthians chapter 15. My focus today will be on 1 Corinthians 15, verses 12 through 20, but in order to give you the fuller context, I’m going to begin reading at verse 1. The Apostle Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth, 1 Corinthians 15, verses 1 through 20. let us hear God’s holy word. Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain, For I deliver to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.

After that, He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared to me also. For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain. But I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach, and so you believed.” Now, if Christ is preached that he has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. Moreover, we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise, if, in fact, the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless. You are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied. But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who are asleep.” Dear friends, the grass withers and the flower fades with the word of our God.

Please join me in a word of prayer. Our Lord and Father in Heaven, once again we beseech you by your Spirit to make our hearts good soil, that our hearts might receive the Word as it has been read and also as it is proclaimed today. We pray that your Word would find a lodging place in our hearts and would bear much spiritual fruit in our lives, and we ask that you would set a guard over my lips, that I might speak only that which is faithful and in accordance with your Word. and for the edification of your people. We pray these things in Jesus’ name, and all of God’s people said, Amen. Congregation, you may be seated. Well, dear friends, as you see, the title of my sermon today is, If No Resurrection, Then What?

And if you’re following along in your sermon outline, there are some on the podium out in the foyer, if you want to follow along. There’s some key words that I’d encourage you to listen for in my sermon. Well, dear listeners, the Christian message, the message that is revealed in God’s Word, the Bible, is called the Gospel. Now, what does that word, Gospel, mean? It is from the Greek word, Evangelion, or Evangel, and it means good news. The message of the Gospel, as it is revealed in the Scriptures, is the great good news about what God has done to save His people from their sins through the life, the death, the resurrection, and the exaltation of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. My Christian friends, one very important truth that God’s Word teaches is that Jesus of Nazareth died on the cross and rose from the dead, not only so that we can be forgiven and saved from our sin, hallelujah, praise God that that is true, and not only so that we can go to heaven when we die, again, that too is a wonderful Gospel truth, but Jesus died on the cross and rose again from the dead so that when Jesus returns to this earth in glory, in the glory of his second coming at the end of this age, our bodies too will be raised from the dead, raised incorruptible.

Our Lord’s rising from the dead is God the Father’s pledge and promise that he will one day raise our mortal bodies in immortal glory when the Lord Jesus returns in glory to judge humanity. This doctrine is called the doctrine of the general resurrection of the dead, or the general resurrection of the body. As we affirmed not too long ago in the service, when we recited the Apostles’ Creed together, this is the doctrine that we confess together when we say, I believe in the resurrection of the body. What you and I are confessing when we say that is that not only do we believe that Jesus’ body was raised from the dead, but we also affirm that one day God will raise our bodies from the dead, just like he raised the body of Jesus our Lord.

Dear ones, the doctrine of the resurrection of the body is a very basic, foundational, fundamental doctrine of our holy Christian faith. Deny the resurrection of the body unprincipled, and logically you will have to deny that the body of Jesus was raised from the dead. The doctrine of the future general resurrection of the body is inextricably intertwined with the fact that Jesus’ body was raised from the dead. Deny that Jesus rose from the dead, of course, and you deny Christ himself, and therefore you place yourself outside of the fold of the historic Christian faith. Well, friends, our passage for this Lord’s Day morning seems to indicate that there were some members of the Corinthian Church who did not believe in this doctrine of the general resurrection of the body. If you’ve read through 1st and 2nd Corinthians, you know that the church in Corinth, though it was a church that was mightily gifted by God with spiritual gifts then, and though there were many that were brought into that church through the proclamation of the gospel, nevertheless, the church in Corinth was, can I put it frankly, it was a mess.

There were all kinds of problems in the church in Corinth. There was backbiting, there was schism, there was division, There were people getting drunk at the Lord’s table. There was sexual immorality going on in the church. There was, you know, there were believers in the church continuing to attend idols meetings, and so forth. A lot of problems in the church, and one of the problems, one of the doctrinal problems, is that apparently there were some in the church in Corinth who denied the future resurrection of the body. They may have confessed, and probably did confess, belief in the resurrection of Jesus’ body, but they denied the future resurrection. in general, the general resurrection of the dead. Well, in our text for today, the Apostle Paul, writing under the Spirit’s inspiration, writing in his capacity as an Apostle of Jesus Christ, begins to refute the false teachings of the Corinthians who were denying the resurrection of the body.

And first of all, Paul points out that if the doctrine of the general resurrection of the dead is false, then by logical extension, the claim that Christ is risen from the dead is also false. If you deny on principle the resurrection of the dead, then by logical implication you have to deny that Christ rose from the dead. If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ himself is not risen from the dead. This is the point that Paul makes in verses 12 and 13. After Paul reviews the gospel, the good news, the essence and substance of the gospel that he proclaimed to them in the first part of chapter 15, he goes on and he confronts the issue here in verse 12, and he says this, Now, if Christ is preached that he has been raised from the dead, how does some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

He confronts them for their doctrinal error here. And then he says in verse 13, but if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised. Then Paul goes on to explain some of the negative implications, some of the bad things that would be true if, in fact, Jesus Christ had not been raised from the dead. And so, my dear friends, in Christ Let us consider what it would mean for you and for me if Jesus Christ had not risen from the dead. If there was no resurrection, then what? So, let’s dive in and let’s begin at verse 14. And I want us, first of all, to consider the implications if Christ is not risen. Let’s consider some of the negative implications if Christ, in fact, is not risen from the dead.

If that is the case, Well, Paul makes it clear. If Christ is not risen from the desert, first of all, gospel preaching is vanity. Look at verse 14. Paul says, and if Christ has not been raped, and by the way, when Paul talks about the resurrection, he means the bodily resurrection. The same body that went into the tomb came out of the tomb. Yes, it came out of the tomb in a transformed, glorified manner. The resurrection body of Jesus could do amazing things. It appears that He could appear and disappear at will, and He could, you know, the disciples were gathered together behind closed doors, and Jesus could suddenly appear, and yet it was a physical body. Jesus could eat, and He could be touched, He could be heard, He could be seen with the eye. in his resurrected body.

So that being the case, if Christ is not risen from the dead, Paul says gospel preaching is vanity. Verse 14, if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain. Now this is a very blunt way of putting it. Paul is not beating around the bush here. He’s not being diplomatic. And he’s including himself. He’s saying, look, if Jesus isn’t risen from the dead, then what I as an apostle am preaching to you is vanity. Now, let’s think about that word vanity. It is the Greek word kanon and kene, and according to Bauer’s lexicon, the range of meaning of this word includes without content, without any basis, without truth, without power. Other translations translate the word empty, such as it is translated in the New King James Version. The NIV translates it as useless, but you get the picture. whether we translate it as vain or empty or useless.

If Christ is not risen from the dead, then the gospel is not the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes, as Paul declares the gospel to be in Romans 1.16. Rather, if Christ is not risen from the dead, then the gospel is a worthless myth. It’s a story that some clever religious schemers cooked up in their fevered imaginations but it’s a story which is ultimately empty and without any kind of rational basis in objective truth or reality. If that is the case, then apostolic and Christian preaching—preaching of the resurrection of Jesus—is nothing but a bunch of hot air. And Christian preachers are nothing but either gullible fools that they believe the message that they preach, or they’re a bunch of charlatans and crackpots and liars. So the first negative implication, if Christ is not risen, is that gospel preaching is vanity, emptiness, worthless, useless.

But not only is Christian preaching useless and vain if Christ is not risen. Brothers and sisters in Christ, if Jesus, our Savior, has not risen from the dead, then your Christian faith and mine is also vanity. It is also vain. Paul goes on to say in verse 14, if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain. Your faith also is vain. If Christ is not risen from the dead, then your Christian faith and mine is nothing but a grand delusion. And the famous or infamous atheist promoter, Dr. Richard Dawkins’ book, The God Delusion, rings true if, in fact, Jesus is not risen from the dead. If Christ is not risen, our faith is nothing more than vanity and emptiness And we’re basically wasting our time being here this morning and celebrating Easter. But furthermore, as Paul goes on to say in verse 15, if Christ is not risen, then gospel preachers are false witnesses for God.

Look at verse 15. Moreover, we are even found to be false witnesses of God. Now, let me pause here. Paul is speaking here, first of all, first and foremost in this context, I believe of, himself and the other Apostles. Now, what were the Apostles of Jesus called to do? Well, they were called to be witnesses of the risen Christ. One of the things that the Apostles did is they bore testimony to, they testified of, they bore witness to the fact that Jesus indeed rose from the dead and that they saw him and conversed with him. and communed with him after his resurrection from the dead. But, if Jesus is not risen from the dead, what would that make the apostles? That would make the apostles false witnesses. The ninth commandment says, you shall not bear false witness.

If Christ is not risen from the dead, then the apostles of Jesus and all who follow and proclaim the apostolic gospel are bearing false witness about God. As Paul says in verse 15, moreover, we are even found to be false witnesses of God. Why? Because we testify against God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. So, if Christ is not risen from the dead, Christian preaching is vanity, your faith and mine is vanity, Christian preachers are bearing false witness against God, and furthermore, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins. Verse 16, Paul says, for if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And he kind of repeats the point that he’s making there. And then in verse 17, he goes on to say, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless, and you are still in your sins.

I want to reflect for a few minutes about what it means what it would mean if we were still in our sins. But first of all, again, note that Paul reinforces what he said before about the vanity of our faith. He uses the word worthless here, or it is sometimes translated as futile. And the Greek word there is metaia, from metaios. And the range of meaning, according to Bauer’s lexicon, of this word includes idle, empty, fruitless, useless, powerless, lacking truth. And thus it is translated most frequently as futile. That’s how it’s translated in the New King James, the ESV, and the NIV. It’s translated here in the New American Standard Version, which I’m preaching from, as worthless. The American Standard Version translates it as vain. But again, you get the picture. If Christ is not risen, our faith is nothing.

It’s emptiness. It’s worthless. But worse than that, if Christ is not risen from the dead, what does that mean for you and for me? Where does that leave us in terms of our spiritual condition? That means that we are still in our sin. What does it mean to be still in your sins? Well, when we compare Scripture with Scripture, and especially when we survey the teachings of the Apostle Paul and his epistles, what does it mean to be in sin? Well, it means at least three things. To be still in your sins means that you are still guilty before God. Now, what is sin? I’m sure those of you who know the short catechism could answer that question well. Sin is any want of conformity unto or transgression of the law of God. It is any want or lack of conformity to or transgression of the law of God.

The word sin basically means to miss the mark. to miss the mark of living up to God’s moral requirements as revealed in His moral law. And that moral law, of course, is summarized, we believe, in the Ten Commandments. To be guilty of your sin. Now, there’s a plenty of people out there who don’t feel guilty, but who are very, very guilty. When the Bible talks about guilt, more often than not, it’s not talking about psychological guilt. It’s not talking about your guilt feelings. It’s talking about an objective state of affairs. To be in your sin is to be objectively guilty before the infinitely holy Creator God, to whom you will give an account on Judgment Day. And that is a terrifying thought, because God is holy. God is loving, yes. He is patient. He is kind.

He is long-suffering. He is forbearing. But He is also a God who will not leave the impenitent unpunished. He is a God who will bring sin to light and will judge every thought, word, and deed. The prospect of being guilty, objectively guilty, whether you feel like you’re guilty or not, the prospect of being objectively guilty before the judge of the universe ought to be a terrifying thought. If Jesus is not risen from the dead, and remember, Jesus’ resurrection has accepted his atonement, his sacrifice for our sins. So if there’s no resurrection, there’s no atonement. And that means you and I are still guilty before God in our sins. And being still guilty before God, you and I are still liable to the holy wrath and curse of God against sin. In other words, if Christ is not risen, not only are we objectively guilty before the infinitely holy creator God, but we are also still liable to His righteous holy wrath and curse against our sin.

We are subject to the penalty of sin, which, of course, the Scriptures very somberly and solemnly declare to be eternal punishment in hell. And, of course, not only are we still guilty before God, not only are we liable to His holy wrath, we are also still in bondage to sin. See, when Jesus saves us, he not only saves us from the guilt and the penalty of sin, he not only justifies us and adopts us as his children, forgives us, declares us righteous in his sight, and so forth, but he also sanctifies us. He renews us after the image of Christ. The gospel of Jesus Christ forgives and it also transforms. If Christ is not risen from the dead, then sin is still our slave master. We are still under the dominating power of sin. But when Christ causes a man or a woman to be born again, Christ breaks the power of reigning sin.

As we sing in that wonderful hymn, He breaks the power of reigning sin. He sets the prisoner free. His blood can make the phallus clean. His blood avails for me. If Christ has not risen from the dead, then you’re stuck in your sin. There’s no way out. You’re just embonded, you’re a slave to your sin, and you always will be. So, I hope, brothers and sisters, that Paul, under the Spirit’s inspiration in his passage for today, has impressed well upon your heart and mine what it would mean if Christ, our Savior, is not risen from the dead. But the good news, and this is my second main point as we move on to verse 20, the good news, the crowning news, is that Christ is indeed risen from the dead. After Paul confronts this error of those denying the resurrection of the body, and he brings out the negative implications of what would be the case if Christ is not risen, he then goes on to once again declare, as he declared at the beginning of this chapter in verse 20, he says, but now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who are asleep.

He’s using the term asleep to describe as a euphemism for death. This is the good news. Christ is risen from the dead. Well, how do we know that Christ is risen from the dead? Well, first and foremost, because the Bible says so. The Bible claims that the resurrection, the physical bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, is a fact of history. It is not a made-up myth. And this is a very important point, because the Bible, what is the Bible? Well, the Bible was certainly written by men, but as the Scriptures themselves declare, the men who wrote the Scriptures were carried along by the Holy Spirit so that they wrote precisely what God wanted them to do. God was at work, especially preparing in His providence, their writing styles, their circumstances, and so forth. And so, God’s Word, the Scriptures, are God-breathed. the self-attesting Word of God.

And since God is a God of truth who cannot lie, and since the Bible alone is his written Word, if God’s Word says that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a fact of history, then that is the truth of the matter. Why? Because God himself says so, in His infallible Word. And since the God of truth cannot lie, His Word cannot lie. God is the highest authority. God is even higher in authority than logic or reason. Logic and reason are grounded upon the reality of God. Logic is grounded upon the reality of the living Logos, the Lord Jesus Christ. And since the Word of God cannot lie, you can be assured that its testimony to the risen Lord Jesus Christ is true. and trustworthy. I know that might sound like a circular reasoning, but again, when we’re dealing with first principles or foundational issues, we cannot avoid a certain amount of circularity.

As I shared in one Christian education or morning instruction class a while back, think about the laws of logic. Can you prove the laws of logic without assuming the laws of logic? Of course not. And likewise, it is with the Word of God. It is foundational. God’s Word is the final authority. But nevertheless, there are also sound, rational evidences that support the fact of Christ’s resurrection. And one of those evidences that is so abundant from the Scriptures is the fact that after Jesus rose from the dead, he appeared to multiple eyewitnesses over a period of 40 days. People saw Jesus after he rose from the dead. People spoke with him. They touched him. They eat with him, and so forth. And this is underscored in Paul’s review of the Gospel that he preached to them.

Look back at verses 3 through 8, where Paul reviews the Gospel message with them. He says, For I deliver to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. Again, he views the Scriptures as the ultimate authority. that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and verse 5, that he did what? He appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve, after that he appeared to more than 500 brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared to me. Now, some have suggested that this appearance is sort of a visionary appearance, a hallucination, perhaps.

But I would suggest to you that verse 6 puts the nail in the coffin of the hallucination theory, because hallucinations are private, subjective experiences. But Paul says in verse 6 that there was a time when the resurrected Jesus appeared to more than 500 disciples. Now, it’s possible, you know, it’s possible if you get 500 people together and put them all on psychedelic drugs, it’s possible that they’ll all be hallucinating at the same time, but they’re not going to hallucinate the same thing, the exact same thing. These 500 witnesses, Paul goes on to say, most of whom remain until now. In other words, if you doubt that Jesus bodily rose from the dead, go talk to one of these 500 eyewitnesses of the risen Christ, who still remain today. Paul wrote these words some 20, 25 years after the crucifixion of Jesus, and certainly, if Paul didn’t have a basis for making this claim, there were many, such as Jews and pagans who opposed the Gospel, who would try to say, no, Paul, that’s not true.

And we can prove it. We can show you his tomb. We can show you his bones and so forth. Brothers and sisters in Christ, we believe that Jesus rose from the dead because God’s word says so and because rational evidences support the fact of Christ’s resurrection. But our ultimate The ultimate reason that convinces us personally, that assures us personally of Christ’s resurrection is that the Holy Spirit testifies to the hearts of believers that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. I want to take you briefly to a few passages. Let’s go to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Let me just read verses 11 through 16. 1 Corinthians 2, beginning at verse 11. This speaks of the of the testimony of the Spirit to the hearts of those who are born again, born of the Spirit. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the Spirit of the man which is in him?

Even so, the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now, we have received, not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also seek, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. But a natural man, that is to say a man lacking the Holy Spirit, an unregenerate man, a man who’s not a believer, a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised. They are appraised or discerned by the Spirit. I believe that the S there should be capitalized, speaking of the Holy Spirit.

But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord that he will instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.” The point here is that the Holy Spirit gives spiritual wisdom and discernment to those who have been born again by the Spirit. And that is why we as believers, when we come to faith in Christ, we have a certainty. Not to say that we never struggle with doubts, but there is a basic assurance of certainty. that Jesus rose from the dead. If you’re born again by the Spirit, you will, at a basic level, believe that, because the Spirit bears testimony to you. And the Apostle John also talks about this in 1 John 2, 24-27. Let me just read that passage briefly. 1 John 2, verses 24-27.

John writes, As for you, let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning.” He’s talking about letting the gospel message abide in you. “‘If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. This is the promise which He Himself made to us, eternal life. These things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you. As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you. But as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.” Praise be to God. Believers have received an anointing of the Holy Spirit, the indwelling of the Spirit, who unites us to Christ, Christ the Anointed One.

We share in His anointing, and therefore the Spirit gives us a basic discernment. that keeps us in the basic truth of the gospel, including the truth of Christ’s resurrection. So, in summary, we believe, in summary of this second point, we believe that Jesus rose from the dead, first of all, because the Bible tells us so, God’s Word says so. Secondly, rational, historic evidence supports it. And thirdly, the Spirit’s witness in our hearts confirms it. And so, I begin this sermon talking about the negative implications if Christ is not risen from the dead. But in closing, let us take to heart the positive implications of Christ’s resurrection from the dead. Since Jesus is indeed risen from the dead, what impact ought that to have on our lives as those who profess to be his followers? Well, there’s many things I could talk about, but let me just mention a few.

First of all, beloved, Since Christ is risen from the dead, we believers should possess gospel fullness. Since Christ is risen from the dead, we should possess gospel fullness. I like to put it this way, children. An occupied tomb, if Jesus’ bones are still in the tomb, what does that mean? That means an empty heart. The occupied tomb equals an empty heart. But the empty tomb means a heart full of the joy of the Holy Spirit. a joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, the joy that the Apostle Peter speaks of in 1 Peter 1, 3-9. I love this opening doxology of Peter’s epistle, where he references the resurrection of Jesus, and he says this in 1 Peter 1, beginning of verse 3, who, according to his great mercy, has caused us to be born again to a living hope through what?

Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith versus salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoin, even though now, for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials. so that the proof of your faith being more precious than gold, which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. And though you have not seen Him, you love Him. And though you do not now see Him, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Since Jesus is risen from the dead, if Christ is your Lord and Savior, you ought to walk in gospel fullness. Another implication of the fact that Christ is risen is that we believers should confess gospel truth. If Christ is risen from the dead, and indeed, friends, He is, then the gospel message is true, and we must confess it and seek to explain its truth to those who ask us for a reason for the hope that is within us. to the Apostle Peter, writing to a group of believers who faced severe persecution from their faith, including legal persecution, where they would be dragged before courts and be asked to explain what they believe and why they believe it. This is what he says in 1 Peter 3, verses 15 and 16. He says, well, let me start at verse 14.

He says, But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. And do not fear their intimidation, and do not be troubled. but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense—the Greek is apologia, an apologetic, a defense—to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence, and keeping a good conscience, so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame.” So, believers should confess gospel truth, that they have opportunity to do so. Believers, we believers, should also walk in gospel confidence. Since Jesus is risen from the dead, we should live our lives in gospel confidence. Believer, your Savior is risen. You are not still in your sins.

If you’ve received and rested upon Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are in Christ Christ’s blood has washed you clean of all your sins. You are justified once and for all and forever. There is, therefore, now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. So be confident. Oh, but Pastor, I still sin. I still struggle. Yes, and you will until the day you die. But the good news is that you are struggling with sin. The Spirit abides in you, and the Spirit is working in you, working ongoing repentance and renewed faith and repentance. So when you stand, confess that sin, forsake it, get up and get your eyes back on Jesus and keep walking on that narrow path that leads unto life. Walk in gospel confidence. For he who began a good work in you will carry it through to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Do you, dear listener, have this confidence? Have you trusted Christ as your savior from sin? Hear this, hear this, every one of you. Where do you stand before God? Do you recognize your sinfulness? Do you recognize that Jesus is risen from the dead? And do you realize that he is your only hope of salvation? Do you feel the weight of your sins? Do you feel burdened and heavy laden by your sin? Hear the words of Jesus. He says, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Come to Jesus with your sins, and he will take that burden off your shoulders. He will forgive you. He will welcome you. He will save you. Believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. God’s Word says so, and the resurrection of Jesus confirms it to be so.

But the final implication I want to mention before we close our time in the Word today is that since Jesus is risen from the dead, we believers should participate in Gospel-centered worship on every Lord’s Day. I want you to turn with me briefly to Acts chapter 20, verse 7. Acts chapter 20, verse 7. And here, the Apostle Paul in his missionary travels, he is in Macedonia, he’s meeting with the believers, and it says this, “…on the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul began talking to them, intending to leave the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight. I know that some of you are thinking, Pastor, are you planning to preach until midnight? Are you planning to just—a lot of preachers quote from this to justify long sermons, and I’m sure this sermon is getting a little bit long at this point.

But the reason I’m quoting this is not to justify the length of my sermon, but to point out, when do these believers meet together? The first day of the week. What’s the significance of the first day of the week? That’s the day that Jesus rose from the dead. When we look at the Apostolic example, the example of the Apostolic Church, we note that though some Jewish Christians continue to attend the synagogue services, the church met together every Sunday because Sunday was the day that Jesus rose from the dead. It is called elsewhere in Scripture, in Revelation 1, verse 10, it is called the Lord’s Day. The early Christians were gathered together for worship not on the last day of the week, as our Jewish friends gather for their Sabbath, but on the first day of the week, Sunday, the Lord’s Day.

And why is it called the Lord’s Day? Because it is the day that Jesus rose from the dead and brought in a new creation. And this is why the Christian Sabbath, or Lord’s Day, our day of worship, is the first day of the week and not the seventh day, not the Saturday Sabbath. Brothers and sisters in Christ, the early believers were gathered together on the first day to break bread. Now, some suggest that means they had a fellowship meal, but I think more likely this refers to they were gathered together for holy worship. They were gathered together to celebrate holy communion, to commune with their risen Savior. And again, I would leave you with what The author of Hebrews tells us in Hebrews 10, 24 and 25. Hebrews chapter 10, 24 and 25. He says, well, let me start at verse 23.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some. but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day, meaning the Day of Judgment, drawing near. Believers, we should participate in Gospel-centered worship on every Lord’s Day, because there’s a sense in which every Sunday is an Easter Sunday. Every Sunday that we gather for worship bears testimony to the fact that Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, is risen from the dead. Dear ones, in conclusion, if the Lord Jesus did not rise from the dead, then Easter is a worthless, meaningless time of year. If Jesus has not risen from the dead, then Christianity is no more real than the Easter Bunny, and no amount of Easter candy or colorful Easter eggs can blunt the harsh implications, including the implication that if Christ is not risen, our faith is worthless and we are still headed for eternal damnation in hell.

But thanks be to God, Christ is indeed risen from the dead. Rejoice, my friends, the Lord Let us pray. Our Lord and Father in Heaven, how grateful we are for the resurrection victory of Your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. We pray that the ramifications of this amazing event of history—real, fake-time history—would indeed flood our lives with joy and peace in the Holy Spirit, and would us on to greater love and good works and holiness out of gratitude for your gift of salvation. Father in heaven, we thank you that you raised your son Jesus, our Savior, from the dead. May we live in gospel confidence. We pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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April 17, 2022
Church Divisions and Holy Communion

About this sermon

When the Corinthians came together for the Lord’s Supper, their divisions shamed the poor, as each went ahead with his own meal. Paul reminds them that the Supper came from the Lord himself, and that every time the church eats the bread and drinks the cup it proclaims the Lord’s death until he comes. Believers come to the table examining themselves and discerning the body, relying on Christ alone, and their communion with him and with one another is strengthened.

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Sermon transcript

This evening we take a… A brief break from our study of the Book of Psalms to consider communion passage from 1 Corinthians. Our directory for public worship indicates that it is wise and a good practice for suitable preparatory sermons to be preached on the Lord’s Supper periodically, and that is what we are doing this evening. So my sermon text this evening, 1 Corinthians 11, verses 17 through 34, if you turn in your Bibles there, 1 Corinthians chapter 11, beginning at verse 17. Let us hear, friends, the word of our God.

But in giving this instruction, I do not praise you, because you come together not for the better, but for the worse. For in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that divisions exist among you, and in part, I believe it. For there must also be factions among you, so that those who are approved may become evident among you. Therefore, when you meet together, it is not to eat the Lord’s supper. For in your eating, each one takes his own supper first, and one is hungry, and another is drunk. What? Do you not have houses in which to eat and drink? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this I will not praise you.

For I received from the Lord what I also deliver to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which 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, he took the cup also 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. Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But a man must examine himself, and in so doing, he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. For this reason, many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep.

But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord, so that we will not be condemned along with the world. So then, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, so that you will not come together for judgment. The remaining matters I will arrange when I come.”

The grass withers and the flower fades. but the word of our God endures forever. Let’s ask the Lord’s blessing upon the preaching of his word. Gracious God and Heavenly Father, we thank you for your holy, inerrant, infallible word. It is indeed a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path, and we ask that by your Holy Spirit that this passage of scripture would be used of you to deepen and strengthen our faith. We pray that this would be the milk of the word to those who need milk, the meat of the word to those who need meat, and may it be manna from above for all of us this evening. Grant me the grace to declare your word with clarity and power and build us up in our faith. We ask these things in Jesus’ name, amen. You may be seated. The title of my sermon this evening is Church Divisions and Holy Communion.

Well, dear ones, as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, receiving the Lord’s Supper in a worthy manner and on a regular basis is vitally important for our relationship to Jesus Christ. Now let me ask you, do you believe that? Do you believe that receiving the Lord’s Supper on a regular basis and in a worthy manner is vitally important for your relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ? I mean, think about it, friends.

Christ our Savior is described in Holy Scripture as the vine, and we believers are the branches. And one of the vital tools or means that God uses to keep the branches, that’s us, connected to the vine in a life-giving way is the worthy receiving of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. The Lord’s Supper is one of the vital means of grace that God uses to preserve his elect in the faith and to keep them in a state of salvation unto life eternal. And friends, that is why it is a serious and even a dangerous thing for a professing Christian to willfully and without good reason or providential hindrances to absent himself or herself from the assembly of worship when the Lord’s Supper is being served. Here we are supping with Jesus. Who of us would not want to have dinner with Jesus, to sup with Jesus, and he comes to us by his word and spirit in the sacrament to commune with us.

Now, of course, friends, don’t misunderstand me. We should always seek to be present at the stated assembly of worship on the Lord’s Day, not because doing so somehow earns us merit with God or makes us spiritual, but because coming to worship, we come to the public means of grace. We come not to you know, earn our righteousness with God, but we come to receive from Christ the good gifts that he has for his believing children. And so it’s always important to be present at the Assembly of Worship on the Lord’s Day.

But my point here is that we should make an extra special effort to be present when the Lord’s Supper is being celebrated. Well friends, sadly the evangelical churches in general do not seem to take the Lord’s Supper nearly as seriously as the Bible does.

Now we who are evangelical and reformed Protestants, we have rightly reacted against the hyper-sacramentalism of Roman Catholicism with its sacrificing priesthood and its blasphemous pretensions of re-sacrificing Christ or re-presenting the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ in their so-called sacrifice of the mass. The Mass is indeed an abomination, and I believe the language of our confession is on target. I know it’s very strong language, but I believe that it’s justified language. The doctrine of the Mass is indeed an abomination.

But friends, in our reaction against the abuse of the sacrament as found in the Roman Doctrine of the Mass, many of our churches, and I’m speaking generically here of the Protestant churches, have gone to the opposite extreme of neglecting and perhaps even devaluing the importance of the Lord’s Supper.

And just to give a few examples, many evangelical churches today teach a very common error, an error of what has been called mere memorialism. What is mere memorialism? I mean, after all, didn’t Jesus say, do this in remembrance of me? He certainly did.

And certainly that’s one of the things that we do when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper. But mere memorialism is the view that the Lord’s Supper is merely or only a mental remembering of Christ’s sacrifice. The idea is that Christ gave us this Holy Supper to help us jog our memories to the fact that Jesus died for our sins. and that it is not in any sense a communion, a real communion or fellowship in the body and blood of Christ. However, the very previous chapter to the one we are considering this evening, 1 Corinthians 10, the Apostle Paul describes the eating of the bread in the Lord’s Supper as a communion, a koinonia, a fellowship in the body of Christ, and the drinking of the cup as a communion, a fellowship, a real living communion, koinonia, in the blood of Christ. Not, of course, in a corporeal or carnal manner. We’re not eating the literal flesh and blood, the physical flesh and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. But when we take the Lord’s Supper by faith and with the presence of the Spirit, we are indeed communing in the benefits of Christ’s broken body and shed blood. And Christ is really present, not in a physical sense, but by the Spirit, Christ is really present to commune with us and to enfold us in our union with him as we partake through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Or to give another example, some churches, including even some otherwise solidly reformed churches, will celebrate the Lord’s Supper only once or twice a year. Can you imagine going to a church like that and you just happen to be sick or out of town on that one Lord’s Day that the Lord’s Supper happens to be observed? You could go years without celebrating the Lord’s Supper. These errors of mere memorialism and the infrequency of communion celebrations in many of our Protestant and evangelical churches are just a few indications that we, and by we I mean we Protestants in general, have a tendency not to have a very high view of this holy ordinance, or at least not as high a view as we ought to have.

Certainly, the Word of God must always remain central, because the Word is the primary means of grace. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ. You can be saved without the sacraments. You cannot be saved without the Word. But nevertheless, the sacraments are important.

In our passage for this Lord’s Day evening, the Apostle Paul indicates that God actually visited sickness and even physical death upon some in the Corinthian church as a chastisement in response to the Corinthians abuses of the Holy Supper and the sacrilege that was present at their communion celebrations.

And so I ask you, dear listeners, if the Lord’s Supper is merely or only a mental remembering of the fact that Jesus died for our sins, if it’s merely a nice but relatively unimportant ritual meal, perhaps even somewhat optional, then why would God bother to take such drastic measures to correct these abuses in the church at Corinth? Why would God go so far as to inflict sickness and even physical death upon some of the members of the Corinthian Church for abusing the Lord’s Supper if the Lord’s Supper is really not all that important? Dear ones, we learn in our passage for this Lord’s Day evening that the Lord’s Supper is indeed important and sacred. And that is why our Lord does not take kindly to those who misuse or abuse this holy ordinance.

But that raises the question, what specifically were the abuses that the Corinthian Christians were guilty of in their observances of the Lord’s Supper? What was it that they were doing that called forth such a heavy chastisement from the Lord upon them? Well, among other things, their conduct at the Lord’s Supper showed that there were deep personal divisions among the various members in the church. Godless divisions. Divisions based on class, for example. The poor were being neglected in the common fellowship meal that they would have in connection with the Lord’s Supper.

And, of course, there seem to be animosity and cults of personality, some of the believers gravitating towards certain apostles or preachers as favorites over others and so forth. You read 1 Corinthians, you realize that the Corinthian church, it’s described by Paul at the very beginning as he addresses these believers. He describes them as saints, set-apart ones. The Lord, they were indeed a body of true believers, but they were also really messed up. And they had many pastoral and deep issues that needed to be addressed. And Paul, in this first epistle, as well as in the second epistle, addresses these various problems and pastoral issues in the Corinthian church. And he answers various pastoral and practical questions that had been raised. And of course, in our text for this evening, Paul rebukes these believers sharply for their abuses of the Lord’s Supper.

But he does so not to tear them down, but to restore them to the right way and to a sound mind, as the Lord always does. Our Heavenly Father chastens those whom he loves. He disciplines us, not because he hates us, but because he loves us and wants us to share in his holiness.

And we see, as I read this passage, I hope you picked up on the fact that it appears that in their celebrations of the Lord’s Supper, the Corinthians customarily celebrated the supper in the context of a common fellowship meal. And that, perhaps, was one of the problems. This practice led to all kinds of abuses.

Well, what are some of the takeaways that we can glean from this passage of God’s Word? Well, one of the things that we learn in this passage, and we’re focusing right now especially on verses 17 through 22, consider, friends, that faithful celebrations of the Lord’s Supper are incompatible with godless divisions in the church. Faithful celebrations of the Lord’s Supper are incompatible with godless divisions in the church. Let’s focus on verse 17.

Now, just to remind you of the context, Paul has begun this chapter commending the Corinthians because in many ways they were being faithful to observing the apostolic traditions, the things that the apostolic doctrine that Paul had passed on to them. So, for example, if you look at verse 2, 1 Corinthians 11 verse 2, Paul says, now I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold firmly to the traditions just as I delivered them to you. Notice Paul is not approaching the Corinthians in this epistle with a hypercritical spirit.

He does commend them for the graces that are evident in their midst, in their fellowship. They were remembering him, they were holding firmly to the traditions, and he speaks of tradition there, not in the pharisaical sense of man-made traditions. He’s talking about the apostolic doctrine, that which is passed on, the doctrine of the apostles that had been passed on to them by tradition and so forth. And he commends them for that.

But then, In verse 17, as he addresses this issue of their abuses of the Lord’s Supper, he says, but in giving this instruction, I do not praise you, because you come together not for the better, but for the worse. When he talks about them coming together, he means them coming together as a church for the purpose of covenant assembly, for the purpose of holy worship. He says, when you come together, It is not for the better, but for the worse.

Our coming together as the body of Christ for worship ought to edify us. It ought to be for the better, for our spiritual upbuilding and edification. But in the case of these gatherings of the Corinthian Church, many were not being edified. And there was, again, division, as he mentions in verse 18.

He says, for in the first place, when you come together as a church, he talks about, he makes it specific, the kinds of gatherings he has in mind. He’s not just talking about a couple of these Christians getting together for, you know, a meal together or what have you. He’s saying you’re coming together as a church. I hear that divisions exist among you, and in part, I believe it.

And then he explains God’s plan in these divisions. He says in verse 19, for there must also be factions among you so that those who are approved may become evident among you. What is he getting at here? The point he’s making here in verse 19 is that due to human nature, Paul expects that there will inevitably be divisions and factions in the church.

He is not saying that those divisions and factions are good in and of themselves, rather, He is stressing God’s sovereignty. God is able even to use such negative, sinful things as divisions and factions in the church. He’s able to use them for his ultimate glory and for the ultimate good of his children. These divisions, again, are not good in themselves, but God in his providence uses even these evils in the life of the church for an ultimately good purpose, and that is to demonstrate those who have God’s approval.

And then he goes on in verse 20 and says, therefore, therefore, in view of what he’s been saying here, therefore, when you meet together, meaning when you meet together for worship, it is not to eat the Lord’s supper. I think implied in this verse, and this is not a sermon tonight on the frequency of the Lord’s Supper or to declare any particular practice in that regard, but it seemed to have been the practice of the Corinthian church that whenever they met for worship, they would celebrate the Lord’s Supper. They devoted themselves not only to the Apostles’ doctrine, but to the breaking of bread when they gather together.

But here he makes a shocking accusation. He says, when you come together ostensibly or professedly to worship the Lord and to celebrate His Holy Supper, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper. What’s he talking about? Well, look what he says in verse 21.

For in your eating, each one takes his own supper first. Again, this hints at the fact that they would celebrate the Lord’s Supper in the context of a common fellowship meal, which I think is problematic in itself. But in any case, that was their practice. And he says, one is hungry and another is drunk. They were getting drunk at the Lord’s Supper. And then notice these searching and convicting words in verse 22. He says, what? Do you not have houses in which to eat and drink? He’s saying to them, this is shocking behavior.

You’re not behaving as the saints of God when you do this. He says, or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? In their common fellowship meals, the poor were being neglected, and some folks were going hungry while others were overindulging and getting drunk. Every church of Jesus Christ, every visible church has its problems or its issues, but I don’t know too many churches today that have an issue with people getting drunk in their celebrations of the Lord’s Supper. That was a pretty, it’s a pretty shocking and scandalous thing that was going on here in the Corinthian church. And so Paul sharply rebukes them. And he says, do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this, I will not praise you.

In verse, in reflecting on verse 20, The Bible scholar W. Harold Mayer says, what Paul means is that in acting the way he is about to describe, they were not approaching the Lord’s Supper in the right manner, but were nullifying its spiritual meaning.

So again, we learn here that they turned the Holy Supper into a common fellowship meal, and a rather disorderly and unbrotherly meal at that. Beloved, what is the takeaway for us? Well, among other things, our celebrations of the Lord’s Supper are intended to symbolize our spiritual unity and communion and fellowship in union with Christ.

We are, through the Holy Spirit and by faith in Christ and the gospel, we are already spiritually united. We are in Christ, we are already one, but are we acting like it? Are we truly behaving as those who are one in the spirit, or are there divisions, dissensions, factions, or cliques among us? We all, in our fallen nature, in the old Adam, we all have a tendency towards factionalism, towards gravitating towards those who are most like us, for example, and pushing away and ostracizing those whom we perhaps don’t like or whose personalities are different from ours or what have you.

We need to watch that, beloved. Let us make an effort by the grace of God out of gratitude for his wonderful gift of salvation to maintain the unity of the spirit, the unity we already have through the gospel and in the Holy Spirit. Let us maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.

But next, as we move on to the next section of our passage for this evening, consider the divine origin and purpose of the Lord’s Supper. The divine origin and purpose of the Lord’s Supper. Having confronted them and rebuked them for their abuses of the Lord’s Supper, the next thing that Paul does is he reminds them of the divine origin and purpose of the Lord’s Supper. He reinforces this rebuke by taking them back to the words of the Lord Jesus and to the very institution of this Holy Supper.

The Corinthians’ abuse of the Lord’s Supper is particularly inexcusable because they themselves had received instruction on the institution of the Lord’s Supper from none less than the Apostle Paul himself, as we will see in verse 23. And so Paul rebukes them sharply in this matter because they knew better. This was not an innocent liturgical mistake that they were making. This was sinning against knowledge they had received from an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so what do we learn here?

Look at verse 23. Paul writes, for I received from the Lord, that Lord that he’s referring there to there is the Lord Jesus. I received from the Lord that which I also delivered or passed on to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed took bread and so forth. The Holy Supper, the Lord’s Supper, was instituted by the Lord Jesus.

And Paul makes it clear here. Look, I received, I as an apostle, received this message, these instructions about the Lord’s Supper. Who did he receive these instructions from? Did Paul receive these instructions from a fellow apostle? No, he says the implication of Paul’s language here in verse 23, I believe indicates that Paul received these instructions directly from Jesus himself. He received this as a direct revelation from the risen reigning Lord Jesus Christ. And the Corinthians had received this instruction from the apostle who himself had received these instructions from none less than Jesus himself.

The point here is that the Lord’s Supper is not of human origin. The Lord’s Supper was not invented by the church. It was not invented by the apostles. It was not invented by a group of clever religious schemers trying to invent a new religion. No, it was revealed by the Lord Jesus Christ. It is of divine origin, not of human origin.

And then, as Paul rehearses the institution of the Lord’s Supper, he reminds us that the Lord Jesus, in the night in which he was betrayed, took bread. Think about it. This was the night before Jesus’ crucifixion that Jesus instituted this Holy Supper. If you know you’re going to die very soon and you give special instructions, those instructions are very important to you. And this is the case with the Lord’s Supper. The Lord’s Supper was instituted on the night in which he was betrayed.

And he took the bread. And what does it say in verses 24 and 25? It says, 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. He uses the bread and he breaks it as a symbol of his broken body that will be broken on the cross when he dies for our sins. He says, do this what?

In remembrance of me. So indeed, the Lord’s Supper is a memorial. We are not denying that. It’s not merely or only a memorial, but it is a remembrance. Christ. Verse 25, in the same way he took the cup also after supper saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood do this as often as you drink it. Why? In remembrance of me.

And so we learn here that the Holy Supper is a memorial. And the Holy Supper symbolizes participation in the benefits of Christ’s atonement. That is what the reference to his broken body and his shed blood points to. Jesus’ body was broken and his blood was shed, why? To atone for our sins, to offer a propitiation, a satisfaction to the Father for the sins of all of God’s people.

And if you move on to verse 26, we also notice in verse 26 that the celebration of the Holy Supper is a visual proclamation of Christ’s death. Paul goes on to say in verse 26, for as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. The point that Paul is making, beloved, is that when the Church of Jesus Christ faithfully celebrates the Lord’s Supper, the Church is preaching Jesus. Jesus is preached in the Word, yes, but Jesus is also preached in the Holy Supper. The Lord’s Supper is a visual sermon, a visual and tangible proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that’s one of the reasons why the Lord was so stern, if you will, on the Corinthian church in rebuking them so sternly, because by obscuring and abusing the Lord’s Supper, they were obscuring the gospel. One of the takeaways from this observation, by the way, is that when we partake of the elements of the Lord’s Supper, we are bearing witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is one of the ways that you can witness. You want a witness for your faith? One of the ways you can do it is come to church and take the Lord’s Supper.

When you come forward to take the elements tonight, you are declaring that Jesus Christ is your only hope of salvation. You are declaring your allegiance to the gospel. You’re not coming forward to say, look at me, I’m so spiritual, I’m so holy. No. When you come forward and when you take these elements, when you eat of the bread and drink from the cup, you are declaring to everyone here present, I am a wretched, hell-deserving sinner. I have no hope of salvation in myself. My only hope of salvation is found in Jesus Christ, who was crucified for the forgiveness of sins and raised from the dead for the justification of all who believe in him. Think about that. When you come to the Lord’s Supper this evening, you are declaring that Christ is your only hope. This sacrament preaches, it preaches the gospel. But finally, beloved, and briefly, take to heart how important it is for us to partake of the Lord’s Supper in a worthy manner.

Paul then goes on in this familiar warning passage in verse 27 through the end of the chapter, and he urges a self-examination before they are to partake of the Lord’s Supper. It says this, therefore, therefore in view of his rebuke and in view of the divine origin and purpose of the Lord’s Supper, Paul says this, therefore, and here’s the warning, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. To eat and drink of the Lord’s supper unworthily is to desecrate the significance of that supper, to desecrate the atonement of the Lord, to be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. And so he says in verse 28, but a man must examine himself, and in so doing, he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. As an aside, or just very briefly, What does he mean by judging the body rightly? Some believe that what he’s talking about is that when you take the Lord’s Supper, in order to take it worthily, you need to recognize that the bread represents the body of Christ, and the fruit of the vine or the contents of that cup represent the blood of Christ, and that certainly is important to understand that. But he only mentions here the body. I think the point he’s making is that he who eats and drinks eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly.

In other words, if you come to the Holy Supper as if it’s your supper, yours as an individual, then you are not recognizing the body of Christ, the church. Here he is getting at the divisions that were taking place in the church. They were not rightly judging their unity as a body of Christ. They were desecrating that unity, which is signified in their common participation of the elements of the Holy Supper. And he goes on to say, for this reason, many among you are weak and sick in a number sleep. That sounds pretty harsh.

But notice these are actually comforting words here in verses 31 and following. He says, but if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. But notice verse 32. When we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world. This discipline of we are told many of the believers here in the Corinthian church who were getting sick and some were even dying. This was a judgment of discipline. This was not a judgment of damnation. God, our heavenly father, our heavenly father, the Lord disciplines those whom he loves. This sharp rebuke is given from the father’s heart of love for his children. And so again, We see that this is meant to ultimately build up the body of Christ.

So what is it to eat and drink unworthily? I like what the great Princeton theologian, Dr. Charles Hodge, says. He says, to eat or drink unworthily is in general to come to the Lord’s table in a careless, irreverent spirit without the intention or desire to commemorate the death of Christ as the sacrifice for our sins. and without the purpose of complying with the engagements which we thereby assume. The way in which the Corinthians ate unworthily was that they treated the Lord’s table as though it were their own, making no distinction between the Lord’s supper and an ordinary meal, coming together to satisfy their hunger and not to feed on the body and blood of Christ, and refusing to commune with their poor brethren. This, though one, is not the only way in which men may eat and drink unworthily.

And listen to this last sentence here from Dr. Hodge. He says, all that is necessary to observe is that the warning is directly against the careless and profane and not against the timid and the doubting. I think that’s very important. One of the ironic things about this passage, which urges us not to eat or drink unworthily, some sadly have taken this language and have added all kinds of rules for preparing for the Lord’s Supper. And I think even some of our Reformed and Puritan forefathers have been somewhat guilty of making this process of self-examination into a grievous burden.

What Paul is basically saying here is that don’t approach the Lord’s Supper carelessly or with a casual attitude. But if you are struggling with sin or even struggling with doubt and you recognize that, man, I’m just a wretch, the Lord’s Supper is for you. Coming to the Lord’s Supper worthily means that you recognize your own unworthiness and Christ’s worthiness. So keep that in mind, beloved. Paul is not telling us that we have to spend hours in prayer and in hyper introspective navel gazing before we can be ready or be holy enough, if you will, to partake of the Lord’s Supper. All that is needed is to recognize that what the elements mean to recognize yourself as a sinner and Jesus as your only hope of salvation, his blood and righteousness alone as your only hope of salvation.

And so let me leave you with just a few suggestions for examining yourself in preparations for the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. On a week when the Lord’s Supper is approaching, I would encourage you to ask yourself, am I right with God and right with His church? Am I trusting in Christ alone for my salvation? Am I grieved and penitent, repentant for my sin?

I would also encourage you to read and meditate on the institution of the Lord’s Supper as recorded in the Gospels and in passages such as this one. Read those prior to coming for the celebration of the Lord’s Supper and meditate. upon these truths and chew upon them and embrace these wonderful gospel promises. I’d also encourage you to spend extra time in prayer the week before communion, especially in confessing your sins and reconsecrating yourself to the Lord. I’d also encourage you to consider studying the Bible-based teachings on the Lord’s Supper that are contained in our confessional standards, the Westminster Confession and the Larger and Shorter Catechism.

There’s so much deep and rich truth there about the Lord’s Supper in our confessional standards. Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are one body in Christ, and among other things, the Lord’s Supper signifies and seals that. Let us live out as a church and as brothers and sisters in Christ this unity, which is declared and signified and sealed in the Holy Supper of the Lord.

Amen. Let us pray. Our Lord and Father in heaven, we thank you and praise you, O God. that Christ indeed died for our sins and rose again from the dead. And we thank you that we are one in him. We ask, O Lord, that as we now have the privilege to approach the holy table, we ask that your spirit would be at work in our midst. We ask, Lord, that we might be relying upon Christ and Christ alone for our salvation from sin. And as we partake together, may our union and communion with Christ be strengthened, and may our unity as the body of Christ be strengthened as well. We ask these things, Heavenly Father. In Jesus’ name, amen.

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February 13, 2022
The Marks of a True Church: The Sacraments

About this sermon

The second mark of a true church is the right administration of the sacraments, after the faithful preaching of God’s Word. Abraham received circumcision as a sign and seal of the righteousness he had by faith, and in the Lord’s Supper Christ gives bread and cup to proclaim his death until he comes. Alongside his spoken promises, God gives visible signs and seals to confirm and strengthen his people’s faith.

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Sermon transcript

I’m going to be using two sermon texts this Lord’s Day evening, one passage from Paul’s letter to the Romans, and another passage from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. As we consider a second of a three-part mini-series on the marks of a true church, this evening we consider the sacraments as marks of a true, visible church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Actually, in your bulletin, it says that the Romans reading is Romans 4, 1-12. Actually, the focus will be on verses 11-12, but I think it would be a good idea to offer the fuller context here, Romans 4, 1-12, and then we’ll also consider passage in 1 Corinthians 11, 23-26, which is the Apostle Paul’s recording of our Lord’s institution of the Holy Supper. So, let us hear God’s Word, first from Romans chapter 4. I’ll begin at verse 1 and read through verse 12.

What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.

Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due. and to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.

Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? When we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness, how then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith, while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well. and to make him the father of the circumcised, who are not merely circumcised, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.”

And then, if you would turn to 1 Corinthians 11, I’ll read verses 23-26. The Apostle Paul, in this passage, addresses issues in connection with the Lord’s Supper that the Corinthian church was having. He reminds them of our Lord’s institution of the supper in these words, beginning at verse 23, For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took breath, 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.” Dear friends, the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever.

Amen. You may be seated. Would you join me in a brief prayer as we ask the Lord’s, once again, the Lord’s blessing upon the preaching of His Word. Lord and Father in Heaven, we have this treasure in earthen vessels. You are pleased to use wheat, earthly things, words, water, bread, and wine to convey and to confirm your grace to us, and you are pleased to use unworthy servants to declare your word. We ask that you would grant unto me, your unworthy servant, the grace to speak forth and declare your word with clarity and power for the edification and building up of your people, and for the salvation of the lost, and to the praise and honor and glory of your holy name. Open our minds and our hearts to behold wondrous things from your word this evening. We pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.”

The final of my sermon this evening is, The Marks of a True Church, The Sacraments. Dear friends, when theologians talk about the marks of a true visible Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, they’re talking about biblical characteristics and activities that distinguish or mark out a genuine Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, in distinction from a religious organization that might call itself a Christian Church, but which actually fails to manifest those characteristics and activities that the Bible indicates that we should expect. to find in a true biblical Church of Christ. In other words, friends, the marks of a true biblical Church help us to discern the difference between a genuine Christian Church, on the one hand, and a false Church, on the other hand. These Bible-based marks of the Church help us believers to discern the difference between the true and the false, between the heretical and the Orthodox, between the genuine and the phony.

And this is a very important thing. There are a lot of different religious organizations out there that call themselves churches. How do we know which ones are true churches of Christ, and which ones are simply pretending to be churches, or which are perhaps sects or cults? This is very important.

It’s a very important subject, beloved, because true born-again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ ought to be very concerned to make sure that they affiliate with a local church fellowship that is biblically sound, and which will feed and shepherd their souls according to the direction of God’s holy word, and not according to mere human tradition, or according to the latest cultural fads or ideologies, or what have you. While it is true, beloved, that on this side of glory there is obviously no such thing as a perfect visible church, and while even the doctrinally and spiritually purist churches under heaven will still have a mixture of impurities, imperfections, and sin in them, because they still contain sinners, justified sinners, yet such sinners nonetheless.

At the same time, beloved, the Word of God indicates that Christ continues to build His Church, and the Scriptures indicate that His true Churches can be known and be identified by certain characteristics and activities in which they engage. Now, Reformed theologians, historically, have identified three, basically three, biblical marks of a true, visible Church. The first mark of the Church we considered on the last Lord’s Day evening, and that is the faithful preaching and teaching of God’s Holy Word. As we considered on the last Lord’s Day evening, the faithful preaching and teaching of God’s Word is the most important, the most foundational mark of a true, visible Church. But a second and another important mark of a true biblical church is the right administration of the holy sacraments, and the third is the exercise of loving biblical church discipline. Again, on the last of our stay, we consider the first and most important mark of a true biblical church, namely the faithful preaching and teaching of God’s holy word.

Well, tonight we consider the administration of the sacraments as another important mark I know that we’re not celebrating a sacrament this evening, we’re not celebrating the Lord’s Supper this evening, but nonetheless, it is important for us to consider these things as we are confronted with the Word of God and instructed from the Word of God on the importance of the sacraments.

Now, that raises the question, beloved, what are the sacraments? Some of our brothers and sisters in Christ prefer to call them the ordinances. Whatever terminology you use to speak of these things, what are these acts known as sacraments? Well, a simple definition is that the sacraments are signs and seals of God’s covenant of grace. God, in grace and mercy, comes to us and makes covenants with us, and he gives us his covenant of grace in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, circumcision and the Passover were the sacraments under the old Mosaic covenants, while baptism and the Lord’s Supper are sacraments under the New Covenant. Under the New Covenant, baptism replaces circumcision as the sacrament of initiation into the visible covenant community, and the Lord’s Supper replaces the Passover as the sacrament of ongoing covenant fellowship and communion in the New Covenant.

Now, the fact that the sacraments are so important in the life of the Church can be observed when we remember and consider when our Lord Jesus instituted these sacraments. When did Jesus command his apostles and thus his Church? For, remember, the Church was built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. When did Jesus command his Church through the apostles? to do this in remembrance of me, to celebrate the Lord’s Supper.

Well, it was on the night before his crucifixion. If you know that death is near, the words that you speak to loved ones, the words that you speak to those who are close to you, will have special import, special power to them. And, if you are close to death’s door, you are not likely to be conversing about vital you’re going to converse about way too important things. Jesus knew that he was soon to go to the cross to die for our sins. He knew that Judas was about to betray him.

And so, what does Jesus instruct his apostles to do? He gives them the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, and he says, do this in remembrance of me. And think about the sacrament of baptism. When did our Lord Jesus Christ institute the sacrament of baptism? It was when he gave his marching orders to his church, after his resurrection, his physical bodily resurrection from the dead, and before he ascended out physically and bodily into heaven in his ascension, as Jesus was getting ready, the resurrected Jesus was getting ready to go back into heaven, to ascend back to his Father.

What does he tell his apostles? What does he instruct them to do? He says, go and make disciples of all nations. What? baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Our Lord Jesus instituted Trinitarian Christian baptism after His resurrection and before His ascension into Heaven.” So, when Jesus, the observance of when Jesus appointed these sacraments for His church indicates their importance.

But again, what are the sacraments? We’re going to consider from our passages this evening three basic points. I’d have you to turn, first of all, to Romans chapter 4, verse 11, and we’ll focus on this particular passage. And we learn in this passage of God’s Word, first of all, that the sacraments are signs and seals of God’s covenant of grace. The sacraments are signs and seals of God’s covenant of grace. Now, the subject at hand here in this particular passage is the sacrament, the Old Testament of circumcision, and notice how Paul describes Abraham’s circumcision and the significance of that circumcision.

He says of Abraham, verse 11, he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. Now, think about Father Abraham. Think about the great patriarch Abraham. God had made covenant promises to Abraham, and by the sovereign grace of God, Abraham had believed the promise. We read that in Genesis chapter 15, that Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous. In other words, Abraham was justified, declared righteous by God through God’s grace alone, through Abraham’s faith alone. in the promised Messiah, the covenant promises that ultimately pointed to Jesus, the Messiah. But God didn’t just give Abraham a verbal promise. He didn’t just give him his word. He also, later on in Genesis 17, gave Abraham a sign, a seal of that word of promise. And this is a pattern that we notice throughout the Bible in redemptive history. In redemptive history, beloved, when God makes a promise, He often signifies and seals His promises with outward covenant signs.

Think, for example, back to the time of Noah, and the great flood judgment in Noah’s day, when all of mankind except Noah and his family were wiped out by this flood. After the flood had subsided, And Noah and the animals came out of the ark, and Noah offered sacrifice to God.

What does God do? God makes a promise, as long as the earth remains, seed, time, and harvest, and so forth. In other words, as long as this present age remains, God will no longer, He will not ever again intervene in this present age to destroy all of humanity. There will be continuity of life. He makes a promise. to Noah, and indeed to all of us, to all of creation. He doesn’t just make a promise, he gives a sign of that promise. And what is the sign of the Noahic Covenant?

It’s the rainbow. Rainbows are beautiful, natural phenomenon, but what do they look like? They look like boughs in the sky. And it’s a very appropriate sign of God’s promise never again to flood the earth, because the flood was God aims the arrows of His wrath against a wicked who craves humanity, but in the sign of the rainbow, the bow is put down. It’s as if God is putting down His bow of wrath and allowing life to continue on earth, even though mankind continues to be sinful. And so, the word of promise that God gives to Noah, never again to flood the earth, That promise is confirmed and sealed with the sign, the sign of the rainbow.

And, of course, we have here, as we see in this capiture today, the sign of circumcision, the sign of the Abrahamic covenant, God’s covenant promise to Abraham. And that sign, obviously, carried over into the Mosaic administration of the covenant as well. And now, in the New Covenant, baptism, as I mentioned, replaces circumcision. and the Lord’s Supper replaces the Passover under the New Covenant. So, you see the pattern there. God declares His word of promise, and then He seals His promise with a sign.

Now, in this passage from Paul’s epistle to the Romans, in the context of the Apostle Paul discussing the patriarch Abraham as an example of someone who is justified by faith alone, apart from works of the law, and as the father of the faithful. Paul makes the case that Abraham’s justification before God was not in any way based upon his status as a circumcised individual. The Jews and the Judaizing Christians may have argued that, but Paul says no. And, again, he’s appealing to the history of the narrative.

After all, we’re told that Abraham was justified by faith two chapters before God gives Abraham the covenant sign of circumcision. We read of Abraham’s justification by faith again in Genesis 15. We read of the covenant sign of circumcision, the sacrament of circumcision, in Genesis chapter 17. And so, the scriptures say that Abraham was justified by faith before receiving the rite of circumcision. Instead, Abraham receives the sacrament of circumcision in what way?

What did it signify? Well, it was a sign and a seal of Abraham’s justification by faith. Just as baptism today is a sign and seal, among other things, it is a sign and seal of justification by faith. It’s interesting to note, by the way, that Abraham was commanded to give this sign and seal of faith not only to the male members of his household who were adults, but also to his covenant seed, even the children. of Abraham were to receive the sign and seal of justification by faith of God’s covenant promise.

And that obviously touches upon the issue of infant baptism, but we’re not going to—I’m not preaching on infant baptism this evening, but that’s an interesting observation to submit. So, think about these terms—signs and seals. Now, you may not be all that familiar with or have much exposure to legal seals, but day-to-day life, unless you’re a lawyer, but we’re all familiar with signs. In fact, I suspect that all of us encountered some signs on our way to church this evening.

Think about the stop sign. What does the stop sign signify? What message does it communicate? You see a stop sign approaching on the road. What does that sign indicate to you? It indicates to you that it’s time to apply the foot I’m slowed down because the intersection is coming up. Now, does the stop sign itself stop your car? No. It points to a reality beyond itself. It points to the fact that you need to put your foot to the brake. But, nevertheless, it’s a very important thing. Life would be very difficult without stop signs on the road, and so we could be thankful for stop signs. And we think also of other signs that we encounter in our day-to-day lives.

We think of a marriage ceremony, where a bride and a groom make covenant promises to one another in the presence of God and of human witnesses, promising faithfulness to each other till death do they part. And then during the ceremony, the wedding ceremony, what is exchanged? The wedding ring. The wedding rings are exchanged. And what do those rings signify? They are a sign of those covenant promises, those pledges made in the ceremony of marriage.

And, likewise, to bring out another common sign, let’s say that you’re watching a football game. Let’s say it’s the Steelers playing the Browns. If you’re watching a football game, you’re watching the Steelers play the Browns, how do you know which team is which? You know which team is which by the uniforms that they’re wearing. You know that the team wearing the black and the gold, that’s the Steelers, and if you’re from around here, that means that’s the team to root for. I assume, right? Unless you’re a secret Browns fan, that’s okay. But the point is, those sports uniforms are a sign that if you wear that uniform, that you are part of that team.

And many other examples. We are all very familiar with signs and their significance in our day-to-day lives. What about seals? Well, a seal on a legal document officially authenticates or validates the genuineness of that document. We see that, for example, in a high school or college diploma. Let’s say that you are a high school graduate. You have your diploma. You’ve graduated. But let’s say that someone questions, are you really a high school graduate? prove it to me.” Well, anyone who doubts the authenticity of your degree can be shown that their doubts are unfounded because you can produce an official document that has an official seal affixed to it confirming the fact that, indeed, you have completed the course of education required for a high school diploma, and you are, indeed, a high school graduate.

And it’s this kind of language that Paul is using to describe circumcision—again, the old covenant sacraments of initiation into the covenant community. It is a sign and a seal. It is based upon passages like this one in Romans chapter 4 that our doctrinal standards speak of the sacraments as signs and seals. For example, shorter catechism, question and answer. 92, the question asks, what is a sacrament? The Bible-based answer is, a sacrament is a holy ordinance instituted by Christ wherein, by sensible signs, that is to say, by signs that appeal to our senses, Christ and the benefits of the New Covenant are represented, sealed, and applied to believers. When Mr. Confession of Faith, Chapter 27, Section 1, says this about the sacraments, it says, “…sacraments are holy signs and seals of the covenant of grace, immediately instituted by God to represent Christ and His benefits, and to confirm our interests in Him, and also to put a visible difference between those that belong unto the Church and the rest of the world, and solemnly to engage them to the service of God in Christ according to His Word.” Now, you might be thinking to yourself, okay, Pastor, I can see how in Scripture we can establish the fact that sacraments are signs and seals, but why is it, then, that sacraments are to be regarded as marks of a true, visible Church? What does all of this have to do with the sacraments being marks or indications? of a true, visible Church. We’ll think about it for a moment.

Christ is said to build His Church how? Primarily through the preaching of the Gospel. As Paul writes in Romans, Chapter 10, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ. It is as the Gospel of Jesus Christ is faithfully proclaimed, that the Holy Spirit blesses that Word as it goes forth to the salvation of sinners, bringing sinners, effectually calling them to faith in Christ, through the outward Word, through the preaching of the Word, and that Word proclaims God’s promise of eternal salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

But in Scripture, as I pointed out, in Scripture, God’s Word of promise, which brings sinners to faith and builds the Church, is always accompanied by His covenant signs and seals of the promise. The promise itself and the sign and seal of those promises are meant to go together. They’re meant to operate together in God’s ordinary providence. In Scripture, God’s word of promise is accompanied by his covenant signs and seals.

The gospel word and sacraments go together, and therefore, a true church will administer the sacramental signs and seals of the covenant of grace according to Christ’s institution. So, that’s the first point I would make regarding why we are to regard the sacraments as marks of a true, visible Church—the faithful administration of the sacraments. But next, as we turn to this passage from 1 Corinthians 11, verse 26—let’s focus on verse 26 especially—we learn in this passage that the sacraments declare the gospel in symbol form.

The sacraments declare the gospel Now, in the context for this passage in 1 Corinthians 11, you may recall that the Corinthian church was a rather messed up church. They had a lot of issues, a lot of pastoral problems and issues in their congregation. There was division in the church, there was sexual immorality in the church, there were believers attending idle feasts and so forth, and people were getting drunk at the Lord’s Supper. there were a lot of issues in that church. And so, in seeking to confront the Corinthian Christians with their disorderliness in the context of their celebrations of the Lord’s Supper, the Apostle Paul reminds them of our Lord’s institution of the Holy Supper in this passage.

And it’s interesting that after reminding them of our Lord’s words of institution in verses 23 through 25, After he says this, after he reminds them of Jesus’ institution of the Lord’s Supper, he says this in verse 26, For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you do what? You proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. The Lord’s Supper is to be observed until Jesus returns. Why? Because in the Lord’s Supper, His atoning sacrificial death is proclaimed, declared, preached, if you will, until the Lord comes.

Another way of saying this is that the sacraments are visible sermons. They are, as I believe the Reformers referred to them, they are the visible word. We hear the audible word through preaching, we have the written word in Scripture, and we have the visible word, the visible proclamation of the gospel in the sacraments of baptism. As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. The sacraments are a proclamation of the gospel in symbol form, and that’s very interesting that God would give us these symbols.

You see, God’s word calls us to walk by faith, not by sight, right? Walk by faith and not by sight. God knows that we are creatures of sight, creatures of sense. He knows that our faith is weak, and so he not only gives us his word of promise, which is powerful enough to bring us to faith, but he also gives us these gospel signs and seals to bolster and strengthen our faith. He condescends to us, and he gives us these signs and seals that we may hang the hat of our faith upon to strengthen and confirm our faith. Now, it’s important to understand that the sacraments are subservient to the Word. Any church that makes the sacraments more important than the preaching of the Word has got things backwards, got things lopsided.

The Word is foundational. The Word is non-negotiable. The Word is indispensable. Without the Word of God, especially the Gospel of Jesus Christ, there’s no possibility of salvation. You can be saved without sacraments. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ, but that does not make the sacraments optional or unimportant. It simply points out that the Word is primary, and sacraments are secondary and derivative. Yet, along with the Word, they declare and proclaim the good news of salvation through the death and resurrection of Christ.

And, the Holy Spirit uses these outward signs and seals to confirm and to strengthen our And that’s why the sacraments are such a blessing. When they are rightly understood, and rightly received, and rightly administered, they are a great gospel blessing to our faith beloved.

You know, there is, I believe, among our evangelical brethren, and even among some Reformed brothers and sisters, there is a tendency to view the sacraments as something that we do for God. And so, for example, and this is the case among many of our Baptist brothers and sisters, they tend to view baptism as a sign of your faith, a public declaration of your faith. Your baptism is your public confession that you have decided to follow Jesus, whereas, I would argue, in Scripture, Our baptism is not about what we do for God, or about our commitment to Christ. Our baptism is about Christ’s commitment to us in the Gospel. In baptism, God gives us a tangible pledge.

He gives us a pledge. It’s as if Jesus is saying, see, I’m washing you. I’m washing you in my blood. I’m renewing you by my Spirit. Believe the good news. Faith believes the good news that is symbolized in Baptism and in the Lord’s Supper. Unbelief rejects that good news, or says, well, it can’t be that simple. I’ve got to do something. I’ve got to add something to this.

Or, think about the Lord’s Supper. Many believers think that what we do in the Lord’s Supper is, okay, I’m remembering that Jesus died for me. Didn’t Jesus say, do this in remembrance of me? He did. This is his memorial. And, we do remember Christ. in the Lord’s Supper, but it’s more than that. It is described in 1 Corinthians 10 as a koinonia, a fellowship in the Body and Blood of Christ.

You see, the Lord’s Supper is not primarily our act of remembering Jesus. It is Jesus’ act of coming to us through the Word and by these signs and saying to us, I love you, you are my child, this is my body given for you. This is my blood shed for you.”

Not that the bread and the wine literally become the physical flesh and blood of Christ. We’re not Roman Catholic. We don’t believe that there’s a transubstantiation. Nevertheless, there is a real communion with Christ that goes on. So, the sacraments are not about what we do for God. That’s a non-Reform understanding of the sacraments.

The sacraments are about what God does for us, and they are intended to strengthen and confirm our faith. in the Lord Jesus Christ. In the sacrament, God confirms and seals his gospel promises to us, and we receive those promises by trusting in Christ and Christ alone as he is presented to us in the gospel word and sacraments. I’ve heard it described that, like the word, the sacraments are hooks upon which we can hang the hat of our faith. Beloved, the right administration of the sacraments is a mark of the true Church because the sacraments seal the Word, and in God’s usual way of working, the Word and the signs are closely connected and work together.

Again, an elect sinner can come to faith in Christ through simply reading his Bible or hearing a gospel sermon, but in God’s ordinary prominence, it is preaching, it is the preaching of the Word through which the Holy Spirit brings elect sinners to faith. sacrament that faith is confirmed and strengthened and built up. Dear listener, let me ask you, are you believing the Gospel promises, not only as those promises come to you in the preaching of the Word, but as they are outwardly signified and sealed to you in the Gospel sacraments?

Think about your baptism. Do you believe the message of your baptism, that Jesus Christ, in sovereign grace, cleanses you from his sin by his blood and spirit, that he renews you by his spirit, that you are united to him in his death and resurrection. That is what your baptism signifies to you. Believe the good news, or think about the Lord’s Supper. When you take the bread and drink of the cup, do you hear the Lord Jesus saying to you, this is my body given for you? I love you, I died for you, I shed my blood for you.”

See, the sacraments take the general gospel call and they apply it specifically to the recipients of the sacraments. In the gospel call, God commands all men everywhere to repent and to believe the good news. The gospel call is proclaimed far and wide to all who would believe, but the sacraments take that general call and particularize it. I baptize you, Jesus, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

This is my body given for you. This is my blood shed for you. Do you believe the good news that is signified and sealed to you in your baptism? Oh, if not, may the hound of heaven in sovereign grace hound your soul so that you come to trust in Jesus as he is presented to you in the gospel word and sacraments. But finally, beloved, my final point. and there will be a great one, I promise.

The sacraments mark a distinction between God’s covenant people and the world. Our Westminster Confession of Faith in chapter 27, section 1, tells us that the sacraments put a, quote, visible difference or distinction between those who belong to Christ’s church and the rest of the world.

It’s interesting that as you read the Old Testament, one of the things you may have noticed read through the Old Testament, is that God’s people in Old Testament times were visibly distinguished from the pagan Gentiles by circumcision. In fact, sometimes in Old Testament times, the Israelites would refer to pagan Gentiles as the uncircumcised. To be uncircumcised was to be outside of God’s covenant community. It was to be cut off from the commonwealth of Israel. cut off from the covenant people of God, but to be circumcised was to be part of God’s visible covenant community.

And it’s the same thing with baptism. Now, of course, as an aside, baptism today, the challenge with baptism today is that there are many false churches, or there are many heretical churches that also practice baptism. And so, it gets a little dicey when it comes to distinguishing the true from the false. But nevertheless, in God’s ordination, baptism and the Lord’s Supper are meant to distinguish us from the unbelieving world outside.

We see this in that you are identified to the world. The world sees you as a Christian if you’re baptized and take Holy Communion. belong to Christ’s church. If you are a Jew, or a Muslim, or an Atheist, or a Buddhist, you’re not baptized. You’re outside of the Visible Covenant community. If you are baptized in the Trinitarian name, you are in God’s Visible Covenant community.

And so, the sacraments are indeed marks of a true Visible Church, in that they make a visible difference between those who belong to Christ’s Visible Church and the rest of the world, again, as our Confession of Faith states on the basis of the teaching of God’s Word. This, too, is one of the reasons why the biblically faithful and right administration of the Holy Sacraments is one of the marks of a true visible Church.

Dear ones, in closing, in our time, the Sacraments are often idolized and viewed as automatic channels of grace. This is the case, for example, with our Roman Catholic friends. The Roman Catholic Church, in its doctrine of baptismal regeneration, tends to view the sacraments of baptism, as well as what they call the Mass, as automatic conveyors of grace. Head for head, baptismal regeneration is taught, for example.

And that view makes an idol out of the sacraments, and that certainly is not what I’m advocating tonight. That’s not what the Word of God advocates. But on the other hand, oftentimes, and I think this is more the issue in evangelical and even in some Reformed contexts, the sacraments today are often marginalized as optional or unimportant.

In the previous church that I was privileged to serve in the Cleveland area, there is a large megachurch in the area. It’s a faithful church. The pastor preaches the gospel faithfully. And, but it’s my understanding that that particular megachurch, I mean, they have, like, three services in the morning, and they have an evening service. In that particular church, the Lord’s Supper is only celebrated periodically in the evening. I like, we’ll be soon here, we have, you know, sometimes it’s in the morning, sometimes it’s in the evening. But, in that particular congregation, it would be possible, if you attended only the morning that you would never ever receive the Lord’s Supper if you were a member of that church, because they only had the Lord’s Supper, I think, once a month during the evening service.

But Jesus commands us to do this in remembrance of me. If you never partake of the Lord’s Supper, or very infrequently partake of the Lord’s Supper, and don’t view it as a priority, then I would suggest to you that you are not faithfully living out your discipleship to the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s just an evidence to me that in many churches, the sacraments are viewed as, because they’re secondary to the Word, they become unimportant.

They get pushed aside. And that ought not to be, brothers and sisters. Yes, we must keep the Word central. That’s why in our Protestant churches, we have the pulpit front and center. in the worship assembly hall. We don’t have an altar for front and center and lift it up and so forth. Although there is a, I know there’s a table down there, but the pulpit is over it, right? There’s a symbolic significance to that.

We know that the word is primary, but that doesn’t mean that the sacraments are unimportant. They are indeed vital marks of every true visible church, and the faithful and regular Administration of and receiving of the Holy Sacraments is a sign, a mark of a true visible Church.

May God give us the grace here at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church always to keep the Word and the Sacraments central to the life of our local congregation for our edification and for the glory of our risen, descended, reigning Savior. Amen. Let us pray. Our Lord and Father in heaven, we thank you and praise you that you not only speak your word to us, your word of promise, but you also give us tangible, sensible signs and fields to confirm and strengthen our faith. We ask that you would help us, Lord God, to appreciate the meaning of the sacraments in our lives, that we may grow spiritually as we consider their significance for us. In Jesus’ name we pray. Thank you.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

November 28, 2021
Living the Story of the Lord’s Supper

About this sermon

The Corinthians’ divisions at the Lord’s Supper shamed the poor, as some went hungry while others were drunk. Paul reminds them of what he received from the Lord, that the bread and the cup proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. Those who eat and drink examine themselves, discern the body, and wait for one another, so that the church lives out at the table the story of the Christ who gave himself for them.

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Sermon transcript

♪ The house of thine abode ♪ ♪ The church of blessed mercy ♪ ♪ In whose compression doth ♪ ♪ I humbly swear to God ♪ ♪ That all before thee stand ♪ ♪ Here at thee at old ♪ ♪ For her my prayers of sin ♪ ♪ Till her my cares and toils begin ♪ ♪ Till toils and cares and sorrows end ♪ ♪ The heart that grinds her heav’nly veins ♪ ♪ First we come in and solemnly bow ♪ ♪ The hymns of love and praise ♪ ♪ Jesus, thou grand divine ♪ ♪ Our Savior and our King ♪ Thy hand upon every tear and blood, shall bring me life and strength. Sure as thy youth shall pass, soon thy life shall begin. On thy victorious way, Please be seated.

I invite you to turn to our passage, 1 Corinthians 11, second half of that chapter, verses 17 through 34. First Corinthians chapter 11, verse 17 to the end of the chapter 34. Here Paul says, 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. From 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 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. Let’s pray together again.

Father, indeed, we are thankful for this, your holy, inerrant, authoritative word. We come not as masters of this word, but to be mastered by the word. So would you take now my, my words and the collective meditations of our hearts and make them acceptable in your sight, the Lord, our rock and our redeemer.

One of the great. grand truths about the church is that all who are united to Jesus Christ by faith are likewise united in fellowship with all other believers. Our union with Christ equals communion with the saints. and all the attendant blessings of the gifts and graces of those saints in a particular location. So that’s a great, grand and glorious reality that union with Christ means communion with one another and gifts and graces that the Spirit gives. And it’s equally true, that is, Much as we enjoy those gifts and graces and are indeed united in community and communion with one another because of our union with Christ, we don’t embody that perfectly.

And Corinth, of course, is exhibit A in the scriptures for a community that failed to actually embody the unity they had in Christ, hence the letters to them by way of correction, exhortation, and rebuke. And what’s interesting is that the failure at Corinth, according to Paul, the failure particularly here was a failure to actually live in light of what the death and resurrection of Christ means. A failure to live in light of what the Lord’s Supper means. They were actually living in complete contradiction. to the unity that the supper means. And in looking at that, and looking at their failures, we actually get lots of insight into what it actually does mean to live in line with what the Lord’s Supper means, and the unity that it commends to us.

So let’s take a look at this. Of course, well-known passage under three considerations. Consider what the problem was here that Paul is addressing with the Corinthians. Consider the principle that is at stake, and then a practice which is enjoined in light of that principle. So the problem, the principle that’s at stake in that problem, and then a practice enjoined in light of the principle. First of all, think about the problem.

It’s articulated very straightforwardly. Paul doesn’t mince his words. In verses 17 through 22, he’s giving a very strong rebuke to Corinth. And it’s over the division that exists in their midst. Verse 18, I hear that there are divisions. And this particular division The one he’s addressing here was showing up when the church gathered for the Lord’s Supper. Verse 20 tells us. Now, in order to get inside of this, it’s actually helpful to know a little bit about the social world of that time. First century Greco-Roman social world in which Paul was writing.

It was a time in the system that was built on patronage. So you had those who were, we could call them rich, and you had those who weren’t rich or poor. You didn’t have this big, massive group in the middle who lived above poverty but weren’t wealthy, as it were. It was a simple patronage system of rich and poor.

And there were distinctive class markers that showed up, that let you know immediately who was who. The tunics that people wore, the clothing, Immediately let you know if you were part of the wealthy class or the poor class. The food you eat. Where you sat when you ate. So the places at the table and which particular tables you sat at in domestic situations or out and about somewhere else.

All these things were indicative and let you know where you belonged. And that time. in this particular setting, they were very, very interested in maintaining those distinct markers. There wasn’t a desire to eradicate that and make everyone appear the same. They were very, very intent on showing who is who in the society.

I mean, we have this a little bit in the West. I’m always hit by it whenever I fly. And I’m sitting way in the back of the airplane in the squinched economy section, looking way up as the flight attendant takes that curtain, that middle wall of social partition, and just rips it shut and basically announces to the rest of us, you guys are losers. You don’t get what we get in here. You know, the big cushiony seats and all the things they enjoy.

It’s a class marker. that just lets you know your place in society while you’re flying on the airplane. And we have some other ones, but that’s one that just jumps to mind. And so here, in this text, we’re considering those stark class, wealth divisions, social divisions that we’re seeing in everyday eating habits. Rich patrons sitting at one table, sitting in one particular place in the house.

And the poor, the underclass, the slaves were sitting at another place and were eating scraps, verses 21 to 22 tell us. Those distinctions you would have seen in everyday life were actually being transported into the church. And Paul is saying, no. to that. That’s not how it works in the gospel.

All the divisions that exist, you know, in just the way the world operates in the world system that go on, all of the ways we mark out distinctions along the levels of class or status or however you want to frame it. There’s all those kinds of things that the world operates by that lets you know your place and lets you know the level of dignity you will be assigned. There’s all that. But the Lord’s table is a place in which those things get reordered.

The position you occupy in society doesn’t matter at the Lord’s table. Your birth status doesn’t matter at the Lord’s table. What you think you’re owed or what you’ve been given in life is not how you’re principally defined and doesn’t determine the place you’re given. when you come together with the Lord’s people. Because the Lord’s table, the communion of saints, in particular instantiations in a church, not just universally, but in a church, is to put on display a social order, shall we say, that doesn’t have the same kinds of markers that you see elsewhere, outside of the church.

That’s the old way of doing things. The kinds of things that divide people in Adam, in our sin, no longer maintain in Christ. You know, in South Africa, during apartheid, sometime during apartheid, there were some Christians who said, you know, there were strict laws on segregation at all levels, right? Where you lived, who you married, where you worked. South Africa codified a kind of discrimination along the basis of race. And there were some Christians somewhere during that time, I can’t remember exactly when, who said, you know what?

We are actually going to defy this, and we are going to eat together. We’re going to have black people, white people, Dutch people, English, whoever, all eat together in the name of Christ. We were going to have meals that rotated around. And what they were obviously saying is that in Christ, The orders of the world, the social orders, the designation, the place you’re supposed to be, along whatever divisions, don’t maintain. They were defying society and the world. They were actually doing the very opposite, what Corinth was doing.

So the problem is delineated here. The problem in Corinth. is that they were not living out the meaning, the significance that the Lord’s Supper is. Paul says in chapter 10, there’s one loaf. It’s not many loaves. And their problem was they were not embodying that new way of being together.

This new humanity, he says in Ephesians chapter 2, where the middle wall partition is broken down and people come together, Jews and Gentiles and other people, because they’re united to Christ. They’re one in Him. They were actually allowing the old order to continue to define the new way of being, of being the people of God. They were, good old word, they were nominalists. They had a name as following Christ, as enjoying the Lord’s Supper, but there was no reality behind it. They were nominalists. So that’s their problem.

And for Paul, this isn’t merely a social problem to be solved. It isn’t just a matter of getting different people within the Greco-Roman society to all join together, getting rich people to redistribute their food. This isn’t just a matter of social problems to be solved. One of the ways people solve housing segregation is they build mixed income buildings in the hopes that putting all different people of different classes together, they might get along. That’s not what Paul’s actually after here. It’s not a mere social issue that he’s after. That people are failing to be inclusive here in the Corinthian church. It’s not social. It’s actually a theological problem. One that goes right to the heart of Jesus’ work on behalf of his people.

You see it in verses 23 and following. In answer to the problem you see in verses 17 through 22, the divisions and the ways they weren’t distributing food and letting some go hungry and others were getting full and drunk and things. In answer to the problem there, he raises the principle that’s at stake in verses 23 and following.

He recounts to them the events of the last supper. In verse 23, for I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you. The Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread. When he’d given thanks, he broke it. He’s recounting the events of the Last Supper, and he zeroes in on the foundational reality or purpose of Christ’s death.

He says, this is my body. He reminds the Corinthians, Jesus said, this is my body, which is For you. This is my body which is for you. The great transaction. My life for you. My death is on your behalf. He’s saying, Jesus as true bread, the bread of life that’s the manna sent from heaven, as true wine, food and drink from heaven, gave up himself for us, for our feeding. My body is given for you to eat.

The triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, eternally satisfied in one another, opens up comes to earth in Christ, the Son of God, to die, to bring life to a fallen humanity, a group of people within fallen humanity, that they could have fellowship and peace with God. The Trinity opened up at great cost that we could have fellowship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Now, how obscene is it to worship a God who gives himself for us as food for eternal life and drink? That’s the God Corinthians were proclaiming to worship. How obscene is it to worship a God like that than to withhold your food from your fellow neighbor in the church? To say you worship a God was infinitely great, who though being rich for our sakes became poor, that we who are poor could become rich.

To say that’s the God you worship and serve, who gave himself ultimately to the end, and then to take your food and not give it to the person next to you, so that they go hungry. They were living in dissonance with what they actually believed, that Christ died for us as true food, as bread from heaven.

And it’s as if Paul was saying, we’re called to so identify with one another. And especially those who are not in our circle. It’s glorious when the church looks like a collection of people who the only explanation for why they are together is that God has done something. where you’re with people that you would not naturally be with. It is a beautiful thing to see a community oriented like that, where you can’t say, oh, they just all went to the same college, or they all come from the same socioeconomic class and background. But to say, there is just no explanation for why that group of people are together other than God broke in and did something supernatural. to bind them together.

Paul is saying here, we are to so identify with one another that we actually participate in external practical ways in loving them. So the principle at stake, we could say, is identification and participation, to see ourselves embodying the self-giving love of Christ who died for us, who gave himself for us, that we identify with that and we participate in living it out. That’s the principle at stake. Because that’s what Paul means when he says, do this in remembrance of me.

It’s not remembering isn’t just, oh, 2 plus 2 equals 4. I remember a fact. It’s not just that. It’s not just letting the bare facts of something bounce around in our brains. And we’re told in Galatians 2 that, Peter, James, and John told Paul and Barnabas, yes, go preach the gospel, but make sure you remember the poor. He wasn’t saying to them, note that there are those who don’t have basic sustenance for living. And just note that in your brain.

Remember isn’t just a bare intellectual abstraction. He’s actually saying identify and participate in making sure they have life-giving sustenance. Remember is an embodiment, it’s an act of identification with and participation in Christ’s own self-giving. Do this in remembrance of me, he says. We reenact, we remember, we participate in practically. Right, we exemplify our communion, our union with Christ and our communion with one another.

When we, as Paul said, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. What is that mind? It’s that mind that goes from places of exaltation down into the depths of humiliation only to be at the final day raised up and given a name that is above all other names. So we take our positions and status and we hold things lightly. And we can lovingly give and participate. and whatever that looks like.

You know, you’ve probably heard it before, in the wisdom of the world, if you don’t have a seat at the table, you’re probably on the menu. You’ve heard that before. Right? If you don’t have the powerful positions in the corporation, where the decisions are made in the back rooms with all the brokers, then all the decisions are being made for you and about you. That’s just kind of how things operate. And Paul tells us, though, that in Christianity, Christ has actually become the menu that invites both the power brokers and the powerless to sit together. He has provided himself as the bread, as the wine.

And he’s not naive, of course, about the difficulties of this call to self-donation, this call to identifying with Christ and participating in self-giving love, sacrificial love for one another, as opposed to the kind of selfishness that was on display here in Corinth. ignorant of that, of how difficult that is, and hard and painful. Obviously, I mean, we wouldn’t have a New Testament if it wasn’t for all the problems that first century churches had.

So much correction goes on within the letters. So he’s not ignorant, of course, of how difficult this is, how difficult it can be to just move toward one another in self-giving ways and to be patient. and to absorb the prickliness of other people and to loving, patiently endure and forbearance and forgiving one another. These beautiful graces that the body is to exemplify that are the fruit of the spirit. He’s not unaware of how difficult that is. Yet, it’s not being easy, so what?

Yet Christ calls us to it, calls us to this reordering, this embodying of the new life and of the new man toward one another. That results in a body that demonstrates what chapter 25 of our confession talks about. Sharing in each other’s gifts and graces. and a body that is functioning through the power of the Spirit with members united to Christ and to one another. Now we tend to think about the Lord’s Supper a lot in terms of its vertical realities, theological. What is Christ doing? What is God doing in the supper? What’s happening?

We tend to think about it a lot like that. But that vertical is inextricably connected to the horizontal. how we are treating one another, how we are practically embodying the meaning of the supper. So those things always go together. There is no true apprehension of the truth of God without a practical, real, lived practices of that truth. Orthodoxy and orthopraxy go together. So we don’t just think about the Lord’s Supper what’s going on, the internal dynamics of it. But what is happening with us? What is happening with the body?

And Paul is saying, he tells in Exodus, Moses tells the Hebrews, he says, look, when you have sojourners come into your midst, strangers, people not from your nation, apart from you, when they come in, you don’t exploit them. You know, don’t take advantage of their vulnerable situation, and he gives these commands. And he grounds it, though, in this reality. He says, don’t exploit, don’t mistreat sojourners in your midst, the people that are not a part of you. Don’t mistreat them.

Because remember, you were a sojourner. You were a strange people at one point. You were in Egypt, and I redeemed you. He’s basically saying, remember your own redemption as a way to then go and love one another effectively, and to love those who come into the midst who are not a part of you. Remember that you yourselves were strangers. And with a mighty hand, I delivered you out of Egypt. And let that memory, let that relive experience of the gospel in your own life, of your own participation in being a recipient of God’s saving mercies. Let that motivate you to then exemplify that to those around you.

So we’re not left with just grand theological sentiment here. We’re actually left with a practice, too. in light of this reality that Christ died for us and offered himself on our behalf. We’re left with a very straightforward practice, Paul says. There’s lots of practices that emanate from this truth. But here’s one that Paul specifically says for a final point. In verse 33. So in light of what Christ has done, in light of his self-giving, And my call to his call to us to remember it. And also look at it.

But Paul is sure to give the warnings in light of not living out the Lord’s Supper. There are blessings to covenant faithfulness. There are curses. And he’s saying, what happens when you don’t live this out? There is chastisement. Because I love you, I will chasten you. It is actually a great mercy to get sick when we are actively contradicting the call of Christ, not living in accordance with the light He has shown. It’s a mercy to be stopped in our tracks and to get sick, and in some cases to die.

So Paul is not withholding the truth of that, but saying, do this in remembrance. Live in light of what this means and remember it. And he gives a practice in verse 33, very, very, very straightforward practice in light of that. He says, so then my brothers, when you come together to eat, As opposed to all the divisions and everything, as opposed to the rich holding on to their good food and hoarding it and not giving it to the other folks, in opposition to the divisions that you’re exemplifying, do this instead. Here’s what it looks like to embody it for you.

So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. Wait for one another. If anyone’s hungry, let him eat at home so that when you come together it will not be for judgment. Don’t come and you’re starving so you hoard up and you don’t think about the people you need to share with. Wait for one another. So simple, so profound. Waiting takes patience. Takes the fruit of the Spirit. Patience. The ability to endure. and to keep going in the face of countervailing forces and desires. Wait, because don’t we all want to rush ahead with our agendas? Won’t we all at heart think the world would be a much better place if everyone would just follow what I want? But wait, Paul says. Don’t leave others behind.

Of course, this involves active listening, attentiveness to concerns beyond ourselves, and learn to wait. The waiting here is not one of mere idle tolerance. It’s the waiting of a waiter. who is attending to others, who is looking after others. And Paul is saying this is a practice that gospel remembering, remembering what the meaning of Lord’s Supper is. This is a practice that flows, an implication that flows directly out of a right remembering of what Christ has done.

You wait. You’re patient. You wait for one another. You may know more and wonder why your church doesn’t go in this direction or why are we so unaware of that or this. And you wait. Patience and listening. Others are waiting for you, wondering why you don’t know X, Y, Z and why do you do this and that. There’s a patience and a waiting there.

I love the African proverb that says, if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. I like that. I think Paul would agree with that. A life lived in symphony with Jesus Christ is a life of waiting and of renouncing that compulsion to neglect others. But contrary-wise, having a zeal to connect with, invite in, participate in the life, know and love and be known and be loved by the others that are around us. So there’s a problem. Paul tells us the principle that’s at stake.

Do this in remembrance of me and recognizing what the meaning of the Lord’s death is and how that ripples out into life together and particularly the celebration of His supper. And then this one little practice that’s representative and implies so many other realities and fruits of the Spirit. May the Lord help us by Spirit to taste and see the truths here and to live them out to His glory and our good.

Let’s pray together. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you that you have not left us without witness, that you did not leave us to stumble along in the dark and blind to your truths. But in your grace and mercy to us, you allow us to hear your word, to read it. May we mix the hearing with faith. May your spirit give us the power to carry out that which you show us. We want eyes that see. your truth, ears that hear it and hearts that are indeed set to obey it.

So Lord, may we indeed live out the meaning of the death of Christ and his resurrection and how that ripples out practically in our life together, how union with him leads to communion with one another. So give us the grace to live these things, Lord, and to cherish them and to love you with an increasingly renewed faithfulness and obedience. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Let’s take our hymnals and we’ll turn to hymn number 278.

Really a prayer that Christ would indeed abide with us as his people. giving us the grace to live faithfully to Him, toward Him. Jesus, with Thy Church abide, Be our Savior, Lord, and guide, While on earth our faith is tried, We beseech Thee, hear us. Keep her life in doctrine pure, Grant her bishops true, While staying in thy holy floor, The A-B-Cs, they hear us. May she one and darling be, One and true, May she guide the poor and blind, Seek the lost until she finds, And the broken-hearted find. Save her love from growing cold. Make her watchmen strong and bold. Let her wrap thy peaceful fold.

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October 7, 2018
Let All Be Done In Love

About this sermon

Paul closes 1 Corinthians with instructions for the collection for the poor saints in Jerusalem, set aside on the first day of every week, the day of Christ’s resurrection. He commends faithful workers such as the household of Stephanas, urges the church to stand firm in the faith, and calls them to do everything in love. Love for God and for one another shapes the church’s giving, its support of gospel ministry, and its readiness for Christ’s return.

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Sermon transcript

We come now to the reading of Holy Scripture as we open our Bibles together to 1 Corinthians chapter 16. 1 Corinthians chapter 16. And there we’ll be reading verses 1 through 24 as we conclude our reading of 1 Corinthians here today. Dearly beloved, give your attention for this is the inspired word of God. First Corinthians chapter 16, beginning with verse one. Paul writes, now concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the churches of Galatia, so do you also on the first day of every week. Each one of you is to put aside and save as he may prosper so that no collection be made.

When I come, when I arrive, Whomever you may approve, I will send them with letters to carry your gift to Jerusalem. And if it is fitting for me to go also, they will go with me. But I will come to you after I go through Macedonia, for I am going through Macedonia. And perhaps I will stay with you or even spend the winter so that you may send me on my way wherever I may go. For I do not wish to see you now just in passing, for I hope to remain with you some time, if the Lord permits. But I will remain in Ephesus until Pentecost, for a wide door for effective service has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.

Now if Timothy comes, see that he is with you without cause to be afraid, for he is doing the Lord’s work, as I also am. So let no one despise him, but send him on his way in peace, so that he may come to me, for I expect him with the brethren. But concerning Apollos, our brother, I encouraged him greatly to come to you with the brethren, and it was not at all his desire to come now, but he will come when he has opportunity. Be on the alert. Stand firm in the faith. Act like men. Be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.

Now I urge you, brethren, you know the household of Stephanos, that they were the first fruits of Achaia. and that they have devoted themselves for ministry to the saints, that you also be in subjection to such men and to everyone who helps in the work and labors. I rejoice over the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus, because they have supplied what was lacking on your part. For they have refreshed my spirit and yours. Therefore, acknowledge such men.

The churches of Asia greet you. Aquila and Prisca greet you heartily in the Lord with the church that is in their house. All the brethren greet you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. The greeting is in my own hand. Paul, if anyone does not love the Lord, he is to be accursed. Maranatha, the grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. My love be with you all, in Christ Jesus. Amen. Thus ends the reading of God’s inspired word. Let’s pray together.

Our Father, we do ask that this apostolic epistle, written under divine inspiration by the grace of the Spirit, would be open to our understanding with power and grace even today. We pray that that same Spirit that moved the Apostle to right of old would be the spirit that is now at work in our hearts and minds to understand and embrace the things that are so clearly written to us here. We ask God that you would be glorified in the reading and in turn the preaching and the hearing of your word today. Help us each one to set aside those things that would distract us, those things that would impede us, that we would devote ourselves, heart and mind, soul and strength, to know and understand the word of God and to lay it up in our hearts and to bring forth the fruit of it. May we honor you in this father that whatever we do, that we would do all things in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ in love. Even the hearing of your word today, we pray it in Jesus name. Amen.

Now concerning the collection with these words, the apostle begins the chat, the final chapter of his epistle of first Corinthians. Once again, addressing a matter in response to a question that had been included in the letter, the Corinthians had addressed to Paul. With these two opening words, now concerning as an introduction, we have seen in the course of first Corinthians that Paul also answers various questions raised by the Corinthians concerning marriage, chapter seven, concerning meat offered to idols, chapter eight, concerning spiritual gifts, chapter 12, and now the collection for the poor in Jerusalem, chapter 16. Yet beyond verse one, there remains yet one more now concerning, you’ll see it in verse 12 of chapter 16, concerning Apollos. And then follows thereafter some final directions, some final exhortations and greetings, as Paul reveals that he plans to travel to Jerusalem to alleviate the poverty of the saints that are found in that city.

He wants to collect monetary gifts from the believers in Corinth, just as he is doing in all of the Gentile churches. Paul’s underlying purpose for these collections is to promote unity in the churches, churches of both Jewish and Gentile backgrounds. His objective is to break down any animosity that continues to separate Jewish Christians from Gentile Christians. Paul taught Gentile believers that they should joyfully share their material blessings with the Jerusalem Christians because of the Jerusalem saints in particular have shared with them spiritual blessings. We find those kinds of thoughts found in Romans chapter 15 verses 26 to 27.

Just as the gospel had come to the world through the and from the Jews, So now the Gentiles are in the position of helping the Jews back in Jerusalem with physical blessings. Indeed, the church at large should know that they were indebted to the church in Jerusalem. Paul wanted them to be cheerful givers who, without reluctance and without having been put under compulsion, would generously give their gifts to support the poor throughout the church. The church is obliged to take care of its own people and of others who are needy. So then while we have opportunity, Paul writes in Galatians chapter six, verse 10, let us do good to all people and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.

After the early years of Christianity, during which, according to Acts chapter four, verse 34, there were no poor among the Christians, the Jerusalem church, had experienced very, very hard times. The great persecution that burst forth following the death of Stephen had driven many of the church members away from that city, according to Acts chapter eight, verse one.

Without possessions, without businesses, these refugees fleeing Jerusalem would have joined the ranks of the poor. Meanwhile, the believers who stayed in Jerusalem, along with those who in turn returned, faced very difficult economic times in those early days. Less than a decade later, they endured a protracted period of severe famine. We see that in Acts chapter 11, verse 28, reporting of that very severe famine. and in later years they experienced economic adversities. For Paul writes that there were poor people among the saints in Jerusalem.

Again, Romans 15 and verse 26. Nevertheless, some directions there Some of those who were left there seemed to be prospering. By his own testimony, Paul was eager to lend aid to the poor, as he had promised to do when James, Peter, and John had extended to him the right hand of fellowship. In Galatians 2, verses 9 and 10, Paul was eager to help and lend aid to the poor. Indeed, he and Barnabas had delivered famine relief from the church in Antioch to the Christians in Judea, reported in Acts 11 verses 29 and 30.

Thus, we suggest that Paul had already mentioned to the Corinthians by either Timothy, Titus, or by letter from Paul himself, the matter of taking care of the economically poor believers back in Jerusalem. The definite article here in verse one in the expression, the collection, actually means the well-known collection, the well-known collection being done for the poor in Jerusalem. So it was in their letter to him that is the Corinthian letter to the apostle. They must have asked some details on how to proceed regarding the in gathering of that money for the collection. Just as he had urged the Galatian believers elsewhere to do good to all people, but especially to fellow believers.

So, Paul says, I encourage the Corinthians to collect money for the poor in Jerusalem. The churches of Galatia are those that Paul and Barnabas indeed had founded during their first missionary journey. The city in Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. recorded in Acts chapter 13 and verse 14. In Acts 16 verse 1 and also in Acts 20 verse 4 respectively, Luke’s account of the early church mentions that Gaius, a man from Derby, and Timothy of Lystra had accompanied Luke to Jerusalem with the monetary gift that was collected in those days. These men, as representatives of their churches, went along to safeguard the money that was sent to the poor in Jerusalem.

In verse two of our text this morning, Paul specifically mentions, on the first day of every week, That, my friends, is the customary Jewish wording for what we today call Sunday, the first day of every week. We remember the references to the first day of the week in the gospel accounts of Jesus’ resurrection. Also, in Acts chapter 20 and verse 7, Christians gathered, we’re told, on the evening of the first day of the week for the breaking of bread, that is, for the Lord’s Supper. Early Christians commemorated the first day of the week as the day of Jesus’ resurrection. We do not know for certain how early in the life of the church Christians began to meet for worship on a Sunday rather than on the Sabbath. But we do know, however, that Jesus met with his church on the evening of that first day of the week, and that earlier on that same day of his resurrection, he made himself known to the men from Emmaus in the breaking of bread as he encountered them on the road to Emmaus.

And thus Paul writes, on the first day of every week, each one of you is to put aside and save, as he may prosper, so that no collection be made when I come. Paul teaches here the Corinthians that commendable habit of continued giving to the Lord. He uses the present tense of the verb to put aside, to indicate that every believer must do so regularly. Paul fails to say whether the something should be stored, where or how that something ought to be stored, but he implies that the individual believer should store those gifts by himself until Paul arrived to collect them.

True, the Corinthian church had administrators, among the gifts, chapter 12, verse 28. And there were also deacons in the church that were charged with administering funds and caring for the poor, as first reported in Acts chapter 6, verses 1 through 6. Undoubtedly, these church officers gathered donations from the Christians to carry out their ministry to the needy. But the wording of our text today seems to suggest that gifts for the Jerusalem Christians were kept by the individual at home until that time, at such time when Paul would in fact come.

Paul tells the Corinthian believers to give on that first day of the week, but he does not stipulate here that their gifts be collected by the church officials. The money was not for local needs, apparently. It was not for local needs to be distributed by the deacons, rather it was a special gift being laid up and set aside by the individuals of the Church, for the Jerusalem Saints in particular. How much were the Corinthian believers to give? The word tithe does not occur in our text. Instead, Paul lays down the clear principle that a believer should give in relation to the prosperity that he or she receives from the Lord.

In the Greek, the verb to prosper, as each should prosper, means literally to be led along a good road. The agent for this prosperity, the agent who leads along the good road, of course, is the Lord. And so the people were to consider how the Lord had prospered them individually and privately in their own labor, in their own service, and bring forth the fruit of it. And of course, in conjunction with the gifts and giving of the people, the leaders ought to gratefully donate their gifts and service in the church also. As God taught the Old Testament people Israel to honor him with their wealth and with the first fruits of all their crops, I’m thinking of Proverbs chapter three and verse nine. So he teaches here through the apostle, the New Testament people, that we are to honor our Lord by giving liberally. God gives faithfully in answer to the prayers of his people. Similarly, then his people should regularly offer their gifts to him as a genuine act of worship and thanksgiving.

In reference to this collection mentioned here in 1 Corinthians 16, Paul again notifies the Corinthians that he is coming to visit. But rather than pressuring them, he nevertheless wants them to prepare for his coming. Paul himself will not do the collecting. He wants the Corinthian church to select and approve men for the task of collecting the money and then in turn of representing them and taking it to Jerusalem on their behalf. This collection was not for Paul’s benefit.

In the next few verses, Paul relates his own travel plans and also the forthcoming visit of Timothy. And then also the reception of Apollos as he too will be coming to Corinth. The illusion, the two time references, spending the winter in Corinth and staying in Ephesus until Pentecost leaves the impression that Paul wrote this epistle for possibly a month or two earlier than the letter he sends. Effective evangelistic work. Paul had found an open door in Ephesus and so he preferred to stay there for some time.

Timothy was coming to Corinth, but he needed a word of commendation. So Paul writes a commendation to receive Timothy. Due to his, that is, Timothy’s youth and perhaps timidity, his timid personality, Timothy had been adversely received at an earlier visit in Corinth, and so Paul writes that they would receive this young man as a minister of the gospel, as Paul’s own son in the faith, he would describe him in his short epistles of Timothy. Apollos, the minister of the gospel, also had his own reasons for being unwilling to return to Corinth. In verse 7, Paul informs his readers that he has no intention of paying them a brief visit.

He desires, when he comes, to spend some time with them. and he offers to renew the ties that he had formerly established with them when he originally founded the church in Corinth. Paul writes because he wanted to express his love for them and knew that they, in turn, would reciprocate that love. The numerous moral and spiritual problems among the Corinthians outlined so clearly in this Epistle of 1st Corinthians, compel Paul to think of spending considerable time with them when he comes. Paul knows that he needs a season of time with them to work on the problems that existed among them. So then after speaking of these plans to come, he offers a number of exhortations in keeping with his concern for them and his desire to be of help to them.

Look at verses 13 and 14. He writes, Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love. The first command is to be diligent, vigilant. Not only are Paul and the other ministers coming to Corinth, beyond that, I mean, yes, the ministers are coming, but beyond that, Jesus Christ is coming soon. After all, be prepared for his coming. Verse 22, think of what Paul says, Maranatha, come, Lord Jesus.

Let all be done in love, says Paul. And as he makes that exhortation here in chapter 16, he no doubt is thinking of that which he has already written in our chapter 13. Let all be done in love. The manner in which you receive the minister, the manner in which you take up this offering, the manner in which you conduct yourselves as the Lord enables you to prosper, let all that you do, let all be done in love. Remember chapter 13 of our text.

Love is patient. Love is kind. Love is not jealous. Love does not brag. Love is not arrogant. Love does not act unbecomingly. Love does not seek its own. Love is not easily provoked. Love does not take into account a wrong suffered. Nor does love rejoice in unrighteousness, but love rejoices with the truth.

Love, true love, bears all things. Love believes all things. Love hopes all things. Love endures all things. Love, beloved, never fails. But now faith, hope, love abide, these three. But the greatest of these is love. Remember our Lord Jesus Christ for the joy set before him. Christ loved us. He bore all things. He endured all things. He did not fail. He despised the shame and has now sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. And he did so in love for you and for me. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Indeed, Paul writes, my love be with you all in Christ Jesus.

Amen. Let us pray together. Our father and our God, we do reflect upon that which we have received in the Lord Jesus Christ, that love which has been shown unto us, the love that ought to be manifest in the manner in which we conduct ourselves in our giving, the love that manifests itself in the way we respond to the ministry of the gospel, the love that manifests itself in the way in which we prepare for the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will come in power and in glory. And we ask, Lord, that whatever we do, in word or in deed, that we would do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ in love, in love for our God and in love for one another. Fill us with that spirit, we pray today, in Jesus’ name. Amen. Now, as we prepare to approach the Lord’s Supper, I invite you to join with me in singing hymn number 548. More love to thee, O Christ, more love to Let’s stand together, please. More love to thee, O Christ, more love to thee.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

July 30, 2017
Thanks Be To God, Who Gives Us The Victory

About this sermon

Some in Corinth asked how the dead are raised and with what body they come. Paul answers from the seed that dies before it lives and from the two Adams, the first a living soul and the last a life-giving spirit whose image believers will bear. Because Christ has conquered death, believers give thanks for the victory, stand firm, and know that their labor in the Lord is not in vain.

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Sermon transcript

We come now to the reading of God’s inspired word as we open our Bibles together to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians 15, we’ll begin reading at verse 35 and reading through verse 58. Give your attention for this is the word of God. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 35.

But someone will say, how are the dead raised? And with what kind of body do they come? You fool, that which you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And that which you sow, you do not sow the body which is to be, but a bare grain, perhaps of wheat or of something else.

But God gives it a body just as he wished, and to each of the seeds a body of its own. All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another flesh of birds, and another of fish. There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one, and the glory of the earthly is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars, for star differs from star in glory.

So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So also it is written, the first man, Adam, became a living soul. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, then the spiritual. The first man is from the earth, earthy. The second man is from heaven. As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy. And as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly. Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly.

Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does The perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord. Thus far, the reading of God’s inspired and infallible word. Amen. Let’s pray together. Father, we ask once again that you would take this word that has been read and now will be preached, that you would use that word for our transformation, that we would more and more become the people you intend us to be as we are more and more transformed into the image and likeness of your son, the Lord Jesus Christ. that one who is indeed already raised from the dead. We pray for the power of the Holy Spirit who inspired the Apostle to write these words. Be that same spirit that is now at work in us and among us here tonight to illumine our hearts and minds that we might embrace this word, understand it, and act upon it in accordance with the truth.

Our Father, as we extend our prayer time this now, we do pray for Dr. Gidley as he prepares for this surgical procedure on Wednesday. We ask that you would be merciful and kind that the surgery would have its good and desired effect. We also pray for Ian as he prepares for an upcoming singing engagement. We pray that you will clear away the cold that hinders him now and we ask Lord for good health and that your grace and power and blessing would be with these men as they face their trials this week.

We ask Lord once again that you will guide us into an understanding of the word of truth as we prepare now to receive the Word of God as it is delivered to us. We pray that we would set aside all of those things that hinder, that distract us, and that we would concentrate ourselves fully upon the Word of God as our God speaks to us for our growth in grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, giving thanks. Amen. The Apostle Paul’s concern up to this point in chapter 15, as we’ve looked at it in two previous sermons, has been to refute those who deny the resurrection of the dead by putting forth the resurrection’s absolute necessity.

If there is to be any Christian faith at all, there must be a resurrection. Deny the resurrection and everything is up for grabs. If there is no resurrection, Christ’s death as a saving event is utterly denied. There is simply no salvation. Jesus would have lived and died in vain. If there is no resurrection, there is no forgiveness of sins. If there is no resurrection, there is no hope for the future. If there is no resurrection, there is neither meaning nor purpose for Christian ethics. Let us instead eat and drink, for tomorrow we die, as Paul writes in this 1 Corinthians 15 chapter. If there is no resurrection, the very character of God is denied. For he is not the God of the dead, but of the living, as Jesus says in his gospel.

Almost certainly what lay behind that denial of the resurrection among the Corinthians is a view of the material world and order that found the resurrection of material bodies or dead corpses to be a doctrine most abhorrent. I would ask you then to think of Greek philosophical dualism, which exalts the mind and spirit as good and denigrates the physical material realm as inherently evil.

To that issue of Roman paganism and Corinthian paganism, Paul now turns his attention in his writing. The turn in his argument here is signaled both by the two questions that appear in verse 35, namely, how are the dead raised, followed by, and what kind of body do they come? We see this shift with these two questions, but we also see a shift in Paul’s own language. there’s a decided shift at this point in the epistle.

The Greek word nekros translated in our English Bibles as the word dead appears 11 times in verses 1 to 34 of 1st Corinthians 15. Six times actually in the phrase if the dead are not raised, the word nekros. From this point onward however from verse 35 onward that word nekros, dead, occurs only three times in verses 35 to 58. The word that replaces dead in prominence or dominance is the word soma or body. That word soma occurs 10 times here in verses 35 to 58 but not once does that word body appear in verses 1 to 34. Nevertheless these are related ideas to be sure but we simply note at this point that we’re seeing a turn in Paul’s language and argument.

The dead, as a phrase, refers not simply to people who have died, but also to their dead bodies that have been laid in the grave. This suggests that the real concern behind the Corinthians’ denial of the resurrection of the dead was an implicit understanding that that meant the reanimation of dead bodies, the resuscitation of corpses. Look closely, look closer at these two questions that appear posed in verse 35. Those who deny the resurrection actually ask, is it possible for the dead to be raised? They doubt that a dead body can be raised at all. Indeed, they do not believe that a decaying body that is either buried or burned is capable of bringing forth a new body. The question then is whether a resurrected body will be exactly the same as the body that died. For if it is not the same, how can one speak of a resurrection?

Greek philosophers taught the immortality of the soul, but they most certainly denied the immortality of the body. Paul, you remember, was scorned by Epicurean and Stoic philosophers in Athens, when at the end of his Areopagus address, he mentioned the resurrection from the dead. Cross-reference the book of Acts, chapter 17, verses 31 and 32. So it was that those Corinthians who were influenced by Greek philosophy repudiated the teachings on the resurrection.

They told Paul that raising a person from the dead was simply impossible. They refused, at this point, to listen to the message of the Old Testament scriptures, the account of Jesus’ resurrection, and the promise that believers in Christ will rise from the dead. Last, they rejected the thought of continuity, for they saw only the dissolution of the physical body when death occurred.

No wonder, then, that Paul vented his disapproval with such sharp words as he does in verse 36, saying, You fool! Fools fail to think even when all the facts are self-evident and plain. Fools despise wisdom, they distort the truth, and they display indifference to God and to God’s revelation.

On the other hand, the wise people who fear God depend on him for the gift of wisdom. After all, we know the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. Proverbs chapter 9 and verse 10. Paul’s response to the Corinthians’ disbelief then is driven by two concerns. First concern, denial of the resurrection for Paul meant the denial of any genuine continuity between the present and the future. The point of continuity for Paul’s gospel lay with the body. Therefore, there must be a resurrection of the body. Second, and even more importantly, the reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ absolutely dominated Paul’s thinking at every turn. Since Christ was raised bodily, he was buried, raised, and seen by many, including Paul himself. There must, of necessity, be a bodily resurrection also of believers.

Nevertheless, Paul was equally convinced that Christ’s resurrection was not merely the resuscitation of a dead corpse, but the transformation of his physical body into what Paul describes in Philippians 3.21 as a glorified body, adapted to his present heavenly existence. It is this reality that ultimately controls Paul’s present argument. For Paul, there is both continuity and transformation. With what kind of body are the dead raised? As with Christ, so for us. The same, yet not the same. This body, but adapted to the new conditions of heavenly existence. Sown like a seed one way, it is raised another. The same body is sown and is raised.

By way of analogy here, Paul defends his argument by alluding to the world of plants, a world that provides vivid illustrations of the continuity of life. He confronts the foolish person who denies the resurrection account as he points to something this person, many persons, do from time to time, that is, sowing seed, such as in a garden. When someone plants a seed in fertile soil that has sufficient moisture and sufficiently warm temperature, that seed germinates. The germination process causes the sown seed to disintegrate. That dying seed gives birth to new life in the form of a developing plant, a plant that eventually matures and again produces seed.

We think of John’s gospel, Jesus speaking in John 12 verse 24. Notice that we sow the seed to be sure, but we are unable to bring about germination and new life. We must recognize that is God’s work. We can’t make germination happen as much as we might think we can. We can put the seed in the ground, we can water, we can fertilize, we can hoe the row, but God must germinate, must make things to grow. This illustration of a seed is apt for Paul’s present argument.

It applies to the human body that at death descends into the grave. That body disintegrates and in the course of time disappears completely. The analogy does not include a specific period of time, how long that takes, for that is not germane to the issue at hand. The point is that life comes forth out of death. No human being on earth is able to bring forth new life out of the body that has returned to the dust of the ground. Only God, through Christ, can reassemble the dust particles of the human body to call it forth in glorified form and in newness of life. In verse 36, look closely with me.

Our New American Standard Bible says, that which you sow does not come to life unless it dies. Regrettably, the New American Standard Bible and other modern translations like it use in this verse the active voice, come to life. Whereas the Greek text, the Greek verb is actually a passive verb. The older King James Version here actually gets it right. when it quotes, Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die.

This idea of being quickened is something that God does. The passive voice conveys the sense that God alone is the agent that quickens the seed, who creates life. and that human beings can only watch this miracle occur, they can’t do it. Life comes from God and from God alone. Effectual calling, as we described it in our confession of faith here tonight. Effectual calling, life comes from God, who is its source. Paul continues his analogy in verse 37.

He knows that the seed that is sown is only a bare kernel. either a kernel of wheat or of some other plant. That seed has a specific form and substance. It is perhaps round or oval. It is hard. It is dry. He tells his readers that that which is sown germinates and develops into a plant. Yet in form, the plant is entirely different than the dry seed that was sown into the ground. That plant continues to develop and is incomparably more beautiful than the kernel that was planted. Paul contrasts the bare kernel from the growing plant in our text.

The question of continuity and discontinuity then is relevant. Plants and trees, fish and fowl, wild animals and livestock all show continuity in reproduction. Fish beget fish, fowl beget fowl, wild animals beget wild animals, livestock beget livestock. Nevertheless, even so, there is also a sense of discontinuity when a kernel germinates and develops into a plant. A seed brings forth its own kind of plant, which in turn produces the same kind of seed.

The detail should not be pressed, however, for the plant procreates the seed that was sown. In this text, Paul is not yet ready to comment on the difference between the perishable body and the imperishable body, the mortal and the immortal state of a human being. He will do so in just a few succeeding verses. say as he does in verses 52 to 54, he’ll talk about that. But for the moment he emphasizes the truth that out of the dying seed new life springs forth.

Jesus’ physical body was placed in the tomb It arose a glorified body, a body that showed continuity. You remember his followers recognized him in his glorified body. Yet it was also completely different, a discontinuity if you will, for it was no longer subject to time and space. Jesus’ resurrected body could enter and leave the room while the doors were shut. We read in John’s Gospel and also in Luke chapter 24 verse 31. The newness of his body reveals a dimension we, in our present state, fail to comprehend. Paul does not elaborate on the human body that will be raised from the dead.

Instead, he teaches that it is God who provides future bodies for every seed that is sown in his creation. Notice that Paul, in verse 38, writes, Just as God wished, In the past tense we read there an allusion to the creation account. God placed his will on creation that every plant should procreate its own kind after its own kind. You remember the language of Genesis 1 verses 11 and 12 for example. Thus, according to God’s will, God gives to every seed that is sown its own body. Paul stresses that God works out his plan of creation in harmony with his divine will.

And that will encompasses the human body that is raised from the dead. We know that God is in control and thus we await the day of resurrection to receive new bodies. Christians believe that their bodies will be raised from the dead when Jesus returns. They know that scripture tells them that their own bodies will be transformed and glorified. We will not receive, however, completely different bodies.

It will be that same body, raised, transformed, and glorified. The scriptures reveal that Jesus’ disciples recognized him, you remember. They saw the scars that were in his hand and in his side, John 20, verse 27. And the transformation, in the transformation, the characteristic features of an individual will still be evident, we assume. We know that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the assurance and guarantee of the resurrection of all his followers.

In verse 39 we see that Paul turns from grain and plants to flesh. All flesh is not the same kind. There is the flesh of men, the flesh of beasts, that is the beasts of burden, cattle and so on. There is the flesh of birds, there is the flesh of fish, and each is different. Paul is preparing the way for the thought that there should be a difference between the kind of body we have before the resurrection and the kind of body we shall have after the resurrection. In keeping with this differentiation from various forms of earthly life, there is also a difference between the heavenly bodies and bodies terrestrial or bodies earthly. Next he distinguishes the heavenly luminaries and says that each is distinct in its own.

The sun, the moon, the stars for example. The brilliance of the celestial luminaries is awe-inspiring to be sure. But the majesty of the mountains and the forests that are on earth cannot be underestimated. Each has its own particular attributes and its own particular glory. Each has a luster of its own.

To be sure, the intense radiance of the sun far outshines the soft glow of the moon’s reflected light. As one planet or one star differs from another in heavenly brilliance and magnitude, yet none is without significance, God created all of them with various degrees of grandeur. There is not one of them alike, for each radiates or reflects its own glow. In conclusion then we ask, if God has circumscribed the celestial luminaries with indescribable glory, will he not be able to clothe human beings with transformed and glorified bodies?

I would say to ask the question is to answer it. Of course God can give us glorified bodies. Look at verse 42. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body. It is raised an imperishable body. It is sown in dishonor. It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power. It is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body.

If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So also it is written, the first man, Adam, became a living soul. The last, Adam, became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, then the spiritual. The first man, Paul writes, is from the earth, earthy.

The second man is from heaven. As is the earthy, so are those who are earthy. And as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly. Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly. Paul compares Adam to Christ in our text. comparing the lesser to the greater.

Adam is the first human who, through God’s creative power, became a living soul, literally a living soul, a living being. Adam is the head of the human race, made in the image of God. Adam passed on to his offspring both physical qualities and moral attributes.

But Adam did not receive the gift of immortality because God wanted to test him in a probationary period of which we read in Genesis 2.17.

Adam failed in that probation and through him sin entered into the world and with sin came death. Romans chapter 5 and verse 12. Angels then drove Adam from the garden of Eden to prevent him from eating from the fruit of the tree of life and living forever. Genesis 3 verses 22 to 24.

However, that which was lacking in Adam is now perfected in Jesus Christ. By conquering death, the second Adam achieved immortality. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. As Adam became a living soul in the fullness of the time, the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. Paul calls Christ the last Adam as a reflection on a parallel to and a contrast with the first Adam. By writing the word last, Paul notes that Christ is the complete fulfillment of the first Adam. The verb associated with both Adam and Christ in this context is the verb became. That is, when God created Adam, he became a living soul.

And when Christ entered the world in human form, He became the One through whom God gives eternal life to every believer. He became a life-giving Spirit. Christ suffered death, but He conquered it. When He arose from the grave and ascended into heaven, He received the power and the authority to grant the gift of immortality to His people through His Spirit. Remember, Scripture teaches, the Word became flesh in time and in space. That’s the Son of God, Jesus Christ, became the last Adam, became a life-giving spirit in the fulfillment of redemptive history. That last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

The spirit whom Christ gives is the spirit who gives the power of resurrection life to Christ’s followers, and to make their bodies like his own body, spiritual, that is, heavenly, in resurrection glory, we are told. As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy. And as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly. Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, Adam, the first Adam, we also bear the image of the heavenly, the last Adam.

Now I say this, brethren, Paul writes, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised, imperishable. And we will be changed.

For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, Paul writes, death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Remember these things. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord. The message is clear. The contrast is emphatic. Death does not have the last word. Death has not secured the victory. The victory belongs to Jesus Christ, and the victory belongs to those who belong to Jesus Christ. Thanks be to God, then, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen and amen. Let’s pray together. Our Father, what a glorious message we read and hear this evening. We ask thanking you for the work of our Savior. And we give our thanks and our praise to you for indeed death is not the victory. Death is not the victor, but Christ is the victor who has overcome death in resurrection power. And we now in him by grace through faith are joined with him in that resurrection, both already in spirit and in that glorious day when our bodies will be wonderfully transformed into their appropriate heavenly orientation. Oh God, we long for that day, we await that day. We rejoice in that day as we give thanks even now, and we would conduct ourselves in the world then as those who have been born again to a living hope, and that we would conduct ourselves in such a manner that we would recognize that our labor here and now is not in vain. Neither was Christ’s labor, death, and resurrection in vain, but he has brought to us a salvation beyond description and comparison. So may it be that we take heart and hope in him as we conduct ourselves in the world. Fill us with that spirit of resurrection power, we pray in Jesus’ name, amen. Now I invite you to join with me in singing hymn number 518, please, 518.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

July 2, 2017
Holding to the Traditions

About this sermon

Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for setting aside God’s commandment for the sake of human tradition, while Paul commends the Corinthians for holding to the traditions he delivered from the Lord. In 1 Corinthians 11 he corrects their worship in the relationship of men and women and in the divisions that spoiled the Lord’s Supper. The traditions given in God’s Word are good, and the church trusts Christ himself and stays mindful of one another at his table.

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Sermon transcript

We turn now to the reading of Holy Scripture. We’re going to read two passages this morning. The first is in the Gospel of Matthew. Let’s turn together to Matthew chapter 15. Matthew 15, and there we’ll read verses one through 20, please. Once again, Matthew 15, verses one to 20. Give your attention, for this is the Word of God. Matthew 15, verse 1.

Then some Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread. And he answered and said to them, why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?

For God said, honor your father and mother. And he who speaks evil of father or mother is to be put to death. But you say, whoever says to his father or mother, whatever I have that would help you has been given to God. He is not to honor his father or his mother.

And by this, you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you. This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me. But in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.

After Jesus called the crowd to him, he said to them, Hear and understand. It is not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth that defiles the man. Then the disciples came and said to him, do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this statement? But he answered and said, every plant which my heavenly father did not plant shall be uprooted. Let them alone. They are blind guides of the blind. And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit. Peter said to him, explain the parable to us. Jesus said, are you still lacking in understanding also?

Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is eliminated? But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication, thefts, false witness, slanders. These are the things which defile the man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man.

Thus far, the reading of the inspired word of God, Matthew 15, 1 to 20. Now turn with me over to our epistle of 1 Corinthians chapter 11, where we’ll continue our scripture reading there, 1 Corinthians 11, picking up at verse 2 today. Once again, I exhort you to hear the Word of God, the inspired Word of the living God. 1 Corinthians 11 and verse 2, the Apostle Paul writing. Now I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold firmly to the traditions just as I delivered them to you.

But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of the woman, and God is the head of Christ. Every man who has something on his head while praying or prophesying disgraces his head. But every woman who has her head uncovered while praying or prophesying disgraces her head, for she is one and the same as the woman whose head is shaved. For if a woman does not cover her head, let her also have her hair cut off. But if it is disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, let her cover her head.

For a man ought not to have his head covered, since he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of man. For man does not originate from woman, but woman from man. For indeed, man was not created for the woman’s sake, but woman for the man’s sake. Therefore, the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head because of the angels. However, in the Lord, neither is woman independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. For as the woman originates from the man, so also the man has his birth through the woman, and all things originate from God.

Judge for yourselves. Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? Does not even nature itself teach that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him? But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is given to her for a covering. But if one is inclined to be contentious, we have no other practice, nor have the churches of God.

But in giving this instruction, I do not praise you, because you come together not for the better, but for the worse. For in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that divisions exist among you. And in part, I believe it. For there must also be factions among you, so that those who are approved may become evident among you. Therefore, when you meet together, it is not to eat the Lord’s supper. For in your eating, each one takes his own supper first, and one is hungry and another is drunk. What do you not have houses in which to eat and drink? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing?

What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I will not praise you. Here ends the reading of God’s inspired word. Let’s pray together. Father, we ask that we would have the grace of your spirit to guide us today, that we with humility and grace would call upon you, that you would enlighten us to understand and believe those things that you have revealed here for our good, for our growth in grace, and that you would cause your church to grow and prosper through the faithful administration of the means of grace today. Once again, we call upon you, Lord, as a congregation, seeking Your healing, Your kindness, and Your tender mercies toward us today. Encourage us from above. We pray this all in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Commenting on Matthew chapter 15, noted pastor and theologian James Montgomery Boyce made the following observation, I quote, Everything Jesus said seems radical to us because Jesus is God and God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, nor are his ways our ways, citation from Isaiah 55 verse 8. Yet it is probably the case, says Boyce, that nothing Jesus ever said was as radical in terms of the religion of his day and all human thoughts about religion and true worship as what he told the Pharisees, crowds, and disciples in the first half of Matthew chapter 15. To understand the radical character of Jesus’ teaching, we need to take in and appreciate the narrative of the story that provides the backdrop for what Jesus actually says here.

Jesus had withdrawn from the crowds, going up on the mountain to pray. Now, this was after the death of John the Baptist and after the miraculous feeding of the 5,000. First, Jesus withdrew on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee and then crossing over onto the western side in the area of Gennesaret. But he was interrupted from his solitude by the multitudes of people who were following him wherever he went and who had now circled the lake again and were pressing him with renewed demands for healings.

While this was going on, some Pharisees and teachers of the law came from Jerusalem to ask about his disciples’ failure to wash their hands before eating. This had nothing to do with whether their hands were free of dirt. It was instead a matter of the Pharisees’ traditions, their ceremonies. The fact that they came, verse one, from Jerusalem, unquote, probably indicates that they were, in fact, an official delegation sent out from among the Jews from Jerusalem to inquire of Jesus and his disciples. Washing one’s hands before meals was not required by the Old Testament, but it had become an important part of the Pharisees’ teaching, and it was of paramount concern to them, since their religion was based primarily on such matters. What we learn in this story is how radically wrong Jesus insisted their position was, the Pharisees’ position.

Jesus did not reply, first of all, by some mild attempt to excuse his disciples, saying something like, well, they didn’t have a chance to wash. After all, we’ve been traveling. I’m sure they’ll do better next time. No, he didn’t say things like that. Nor did he try to veer away their question by mere discussion, saying, well, let’s talk about such washings. Why do you think they’re so important? No, he didn’t say that either.

Instead, he attacked the Pharisees forcefully and directly for fussing about paltry matters while breaking God’s law in essential matters by their traditions. We see this spelled out in Matthew 15, verses 3 through 6. He said that their entire understanding of religion was wrong, that their hearts were, quote, far from God, and that their worship of God was vain. Verses 8 and 9 of Matthew 15. Even stronger, when his disciples warned him that the Pharisees were offended by what he said, Jesus called them blind guides leading blind men.

Verse 14 of the text. He likened them there to plants that God had not planted. Plants that would eventually be pulled up by the roots and discarded. Verse 13 of the text. In light of the parables which Jesus had just recently spoken, recorded in the Gospel in chapter 13 of Matthew, this can only mean that the Pharisees, instead of being plantings of God, were plantings of Satan, and would be destroyed by fire at the Last Judgment. When we remember that the Pharisees were the most highly regarded men of religion of their day, we see just how shocking, how radical this is. By these words, Jesus was not only condemning their system, he was condemning the best of human religion, saying that all human efforts to please God are external and vain, and that the only thing that really matters is a radical change of heart. since it is what comes out of the heart that makes a man unclean. Verse 18.

It is not what goes into the mouth or whether he eats with unwashed hands. It is what comes out of the heart. What comes out of the mouth comes from the heart. And the heart, as any careful reader of the Old Testament should have known, is exceedingly wicked. Jeremiah the prophet wrote, the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? Jeremiah 17 and verse nine. What Jesus says here in the gospel is that all sins come from the heart.

He even names them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what makes a man unclean. But eating with unwashed hands does not make him unclean. Verses 19 and 20 of Matthew 15.

Mark, in the parallel passage, concludes from these words of Jesus that Jesus declared all foods clean, thereby abolishing not only the Pharisaic, but also the Levitical regulations, the dietary laws, and we see Mark saying that in Mark chapter seven and verse 19. The Apostle Paul, apparently, who learned that same lesson, argues in Romans chapter 14 that because of this teaching of Jesus, Christians are not to divide over matters of diet or even the observance or non-observance of certain holy days. Why? Why? Because the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, Paul says, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and is approved by men also. Now there’s true religion. It is what Jesus came to teach and establish. Righteousness, peace, and joy are the spiritual opposites of kosher cooking and eating with washed or unwashed hands. As we come to the end of Jesus’ radical words about the nature of true religion, which is the only religion that God accepts, I ask then the necessary question. Beloved, do you stand before God with clean hands only, that is, with mere ceremonial religion, according to the tradition of men? Or do you come before your God with a new and clean heart? Washing our hands in a certain religious way is not the issue today, of course, but the principle revealed here applies in other areas also.

For some, this type of ceremonial traditional religion means simply good works, perhaps giving money to help the poor or donating time to charity. A person like this supposes that he will be accepted by God for doing these good works. Another person along the same line thinks in terms of religious observance. So she is faithful to attend church services regularly, perhaps even morning and evening, and there singing certain hymns or perhaps exclusively psalms.

If you have an understanding of religion in these or similar ways, you may have discovered that traditional ceremonial things do nothing to change the nature of your heart. Regardless of how often you go to church, it is still the case that out of your heart come sins such as evil thoughts, false testimony, and slander, or even such sins as murder and adultery, sexual immorality, and theft.

You see, you have two problems. You need forgiveness for your sins, and you need a new heart that will enable you to stop sinning and begin to serve God. Where can forgiveness be found, we might ask? Where can a new heart be acquired? The good news of the gospel is that Jesus came to give you both. He died on the cross so that you might have forgiveness, and he bore the punishment for your sins in your place, and he rose again to impart with you the Holy Spirit, which is the source of new life. It is God alone who can give you a new heart, capable of loving and serving God. Indeed, it is possible to talk about the whole of Christianity as possessing a transformed heart according to the working of the power of the Holy Spirit.

The words of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians bring us today to chapter 11, verse 2. After prohibiting the Corinthians in the previous chapters of our epistle from being involved in pagan worship, Paul here now turns in this portion of the epistle to address matters in their own public assemblies. In the next four chapters, actually, chapters 11 through 14, Paul offers instruction to the Corinthians in the matter of worship. He begins here in chapter 11 with worshipers, both male and female worshipers. male and female worshipers who pray or prophesy.

And then he explains proper conduct at the Lord’s table in the process and then follows in a subsequent chapter, a lengthy discussion on the gifts of the spirit and particularly speaking in tongues. And then in the midst of these chapters, in these things, It is here that we find his distinct letter of love, chapter 13, which we all know as Paul’s recipe for love. First Corinthians chapter 13. In the midst of discussion of women and men relationship, the gift of tongues, the Lord’s Supper and things such as these, there is the appearance of the importance of chapter 13, the letter of love from the apostle.

He’ll conclude this section at the end of chapter 14 with an exhortation to prophesy. Yes, do prophesy. And secondly, he concludes with a command not to forbid tongue speaking, 1 Corinthians 14, verses 39 and 40. But he also concludes chapter 14 with a rule to maintain good order.

Specifically here in chapter 11, there appears to be a concern regarding the relation of men and women in worship, which seems to raise a question about women’s head covering or hairstyle when praying or prophesying chapter 11 verses two through 16. But I would argue that it’s not about head covering or hair hairstyle at all.

The real issue is how the men and women in the church relate to one another. Hence the clear, positive instruction about headship that we find here in verse 3. Paul says, I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man and the man is the head of a woman and God is the head of Christ. Praying and prophesying in short, are not the heart of true religion.

Every man who has something against his head, it’s a Greek phrase there, beloved, kata kafali. something against his head. Remember, the man’s head is Christ. If the man has something against Christ while praying or prophesying, he disgraces his head. Again, remember, his head is Christ.

Do you remember Jesus’ words of warning to those who think that prophesying perhaps is a key to heaven? Not everyone who says to me, Jesus says in Matthew’s gospel, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my father, who is in heaven, will enter.

Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? And in your name, did we not cast out demons? And in your name, perform many miracles? And Jesus goes on to say, and then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. And what about the woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered? Remember that her head is the man. That is, what about the woman who prays or prophesies while publicly uncovering her husband, that is, exposing him to shame by her insubordination or perhaps lack of respect? Praying and prophesying are not the heart of true religion.

But notice how Paul begins this section in 1 Corinthians 11 with verse 2 with a word of praise or commendation that is addressed to the Corinthians. Having said in verse 1 that we dealt with last time, be imitators of me just as I also am of Christ. He then shifts to this word of praise in verse 2 where he says, now I praise you because you remember me in everything. He just said, imitate me in everything. And now he is saying, you remember me in everything. And you hold firmly to the traditions, just as I delivered them to you.

No other passage in this epistle of 1 Corinthians has words of praise for the Corinthians, except, we might say, for the introductory section in the first chapter, verses 4 through 9, where the apostle does, in fact, give thanks for the grace of God given to the Corinthians in Christ Jesus, such that they were not lacking in any good gift.

Immediately following this introduction of thanks to God for his grace to the Corinthians, He then goes on immediately in that first chapter to reprove his readers for their factionalism in the church. I am of Paul, I’m of Cephas, I’m of Apollos. You remember the context of that. They have the gifts for which Paul gives thanks, but he rebukes their division and the manner in which they conduct themselves with one another. Gifts in and of themselves, no matter how great or how many, do not constitute true religion.

Similarly, in our current chapter, Paul praises the Corinthians for their remembrance of him and the traditions that he had entrusted to them. But subsequent to these commendations, He right away goes on to instruct them in the proper conduct of men and women, especially in public worship, such that by verse 17, Paul is constrained to say, but in giving this instruction, I do not praise you because you come together, not for the better, but for the worse. Why does Paul praise the Corinthians? Because they have remembered and continue to remember him in all things. This means that numerous Christians in Corinth indeed had fond memories of Paul. They follow his instructions. But many of the Corinthians did not keep Paul’s teachings, which is so evident from the surrounding context of the epistle as a whole. Let us take a closer look for a moment at verse 2.

What does Paul mean when he says, you remember me in everything and hold firmly to the traditions just as I delivered them to you? We must assume that the traditions of which Paul speaks are those apostolic teachings that Paul had delivered to the Corinthians in earlier times during his missionary journeys. They are the traditions that the apostles themselves had received and subsequently transmitted to others. To be sure, one of those things they had received, that Paul himself had received, and subsequently delivered to the Corinthians, was the tradition of the Lord’s Suffer.

Look at verse 23, where he uses that very language. I delivered to you that which I also received. that the Lord Jesus, in the night in which he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, and so on and so on. There adding, as he does, the very words of Jesus as they relate to the supper. The Corinthians, mind you, observed the Lord’s Supper. They kept the tradition, but one of Paul’s concerns was related to the abuse of the poor at the Lord’s Supper at the table. We see this in verses 17 to 34 of chapter 11.

Yes, the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is an apostolic tradition, but that in and of itself does not constitute true religion. There is nothing magical about the words of institution as they are read at the Lord’s Supper. The Lord’s Supper as a sacrament does not save you. But in fact, the Lord’s Supper is about true religion.

It is about discerning the body. It is about loving and honoring and serving the Lord Jesus Christ. It is about loving and honoring and serving one another as members of the body of Christ. In addition to the relationship of men and women in the church and the discernment of the body as it relates to the Lord’s Supper, a third area of concern for the apostle relates to the abuse of speaking in tongues in the assembly itself. We’ll see this taken up in chapters 12-14.

You speak in tongues, You do well, but do tongue speaking constitute true religion? The issue, again, beloved, is true religion. True religion does not consist in speaking in tongues. You keep the traditions, that is, the traditions of the word of God.

How about righteousness, and joy, and peace, and love in the Holy Spirit, which are acceptable to God? Now that is the heart of the matter. So many traditions in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, traditions both theological and practical. But the question is, beloved, in the final analysis, shall Christ commend us? Shall he commend us for keeping the traditions or shall he commend us for righteousness and joy and peace and love in the Holy Spirit, which is acceptable to God? That is the question. Let’s pray together. Our Father, we do ask and pray that ours would be the true heart religion transformed, that out of our hearts would come the clean things of the Holy Spirit bearing much fruit, that we would so prove to be true followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that he would recognize us as his followers, not as those who glory in their traditions, without the grace of the Spirit, but rather those who would glory in Jesus, who would boast in him alone. We pray, Father, that as we reflect upon Paul’s instructions here, as it relates to men and women, and we think of the whole context of the Apostle Paul in the New Testament as it relates to men and women in the church, we think of his concern for the exercise of the gift of tongues in a manner that is good for the body, and again, the manner in which we conduct ourselves at the Lord’s Supper as we are mindful of one another.

May these things be that which is first and foremost in our thinking. Traditions are good as they have been given to us by the Lord Jesus in the word of God. But let it be that we not trust the traditions as we would trust in the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Let us be filled with his spirit.

Hear us as we pray these things together now. May your word have its good effect in us. We pray this together in Jesus name. Amen. Beloved, now let us join in singing one of our favorite traditional hymns. Hymn number 270, The Church’s One Foundation. Number 270.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

March 19, 2017
The Good of the Other and the Glory of God

About this sermon

Paul answers the Corinthians’ questions about meat from the market and meals with unbelievers. All things are lawful, yet not all things build up, so the believer seeks his neighbor’s good before his own rights. Following Paul as he follows Christ, the church does everything, from daily work to family life, for the good of others and the glory of God.

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Sermon transcript

Let us prepare now to receive the Word of God as we open our Bibles to 1 Corinthians 10. 1 Corinthians 10, we’ll begin reading at verse 23 this morning. 1 Corinthians 10, beginning with verse 23, we’ll read through chapter 11 and verse 1. Give your attention. This is the word of God.

The Apostle Paul writes, all things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify. Let no one seek his own good, but that of his neighbor. Eat anything that is sold in the meat market without asking questions for conscience sake. For the earth is the Lord’s and all it contains. If one of the unbelievers invites you and you want to go, eat anything that is set before you without asking questions for conscience sake.

But if anyone says to you, this is meat sacrifice to idols, do not eat it for the sake of the one who informed you and for conscience sake. I mean not your own conscience, but the other man’s. For why is my freedom judged by another’s conscience? If I partake with thankfulness, why am I slandered concerning that for which I give thanks?

Whether then you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense either to Jews or to the Greeks or to the Church of God. just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of the many so that they may be saved.

Be imitators of me just as I also am of Christ. Thus far, the reading of God’s inspired word. Let’s pray together. Father, we ask that your blessing would rest upon us as your people, that we would hear the word of God and that we would lay it up in our hearts and by the grace of the Spirit bring forth the fruit of it, that we would truly love one another as we ought. May you bless now the preaching and the hearing of your word among this people here gathered, to the end that you would be glorified in it and that we would be edified, built up in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hear our prayers of supplication, we pray now in Jesus’ name. Amen. Christians today are apt to find it a little strange that there was any doubt as to the attitude of Christians in regards to meat which had been offered to idols. It seems to us so obvious that they could, should have no identification with idolatry at all.

But it was not so easy as that to a new convert in Corinth in the first century. The situation was complicated by two facts. First, it was an accepted social practice to have meals in a temple or in some place associated with an idol. As one commentator put it, it was all part and parcel of the formal etiquette in society of that day. The kind of occasion, public or private, when people were likely to come together socially was the kind of occasion when a sacrifice was appropriate. To have nothing to do with such gatherings was to cut oneself off from most social intercourse with one’s fellows in the first century.

Immature believers, firmly convinced that there was but one God, might well reason, how can there possibly be any harm in eating food before a block of wood or a piece of stone? What difference can it make if meat has been offered to a non-existent deity?

Secondly, most of the meat sold in the shops, a second fact, most of the meat sold in the shops in that day had first been offered in sacrifice. Part of the victim was always offered on the altars to the God, the particular God in question. part of the offering went to the priest and usually then part of the offering went to the worshipers themselves. The priests customarily sold what they could not use. It would often be very difficult to know for sure whether meat in a given meat shop had been part of a sacrifice or not. Notice that there are two separate questions raised here. The taking part in idle feast one, and the eating of meat bought in the meat shops of the day, but previously part of a sacrifice, perhaps.

Many things might be said, but Paul begins with the obligations of Christian love. He writes in verses 23 and 24, all things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify. Let no one seek his own good, but that of literally the other. The work of edifying is always action performed for the benefit of someone else. It is therefore the opposite of that which is profitable, or that is, in other words, what benefits oneself.

Paul taught the Corinthians that love and pursuit of peace led to mutual edification. Compare, for example, 1 Corinthians chapter eight, verse one, where he says, knowledge makes arrogant or knowledge puffs up, but love edifies, love builds up. And compare also that with Romans 14 and verse 19. Paul writes, so then we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up, the edifying of one another.

Continuing his pastoral advice to the believers in Corinth, Paul adds here in 1 Corinthians 10, a sentence in verse 24 of our text, let no one seek his own good, but that of his neighbor, literally again, the other. Let no one seek his own good, but that of the other. a text that is reminiscent of exhortations found in Paul’s other epistles. For example, in Romans 15 and verse 2, Paul writes, each of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to his edification, Romans 15, 2. And also Philippians chapter 2 and verse 4, where Paul writes, do not merely look out for your own personal interest, but also for the interest of others. The content of all these injunctions from the Paul’s writings echoes the teaching of Jesus when he summarized the Ten Commandments, the Decalogue, in the words, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

For example, Matthew 22 and verse 39. Paul notes elsewhere that this summary love your neighbor as yourself is the fulfillment of the law. We see that Romans 13 verses nine and 10. James also comments on that same text. You shall love your neighbor as yourself, calling it in James chapter two, verse eight, the royal law, seeking the interest of someone else. The other, in other words, is not always easy by nature, by human sinful nature, we are inclined to look after our own interests first, and afterwards then, if time and resources permit, we might think of others.

But for Paul, the pattern for the Christian life, and hence the pattern for his own message, was the example and the instruction of Jesus Christ. For Paul, the death of Christ in which he gave himself for us is not only the offer of pardon for sinners, but it is also the proper model of discipleship. Hence, freedom for Paul does not mean to seek my own good. Freedom means to be free in Christ in such a way that one can truly seek to benefit and build up the other person. For the Corinthians, personal rights meant the right to act in freedom as they saw fit for their own interest.

For Paul, as we saw in 1 Corinthians 9 and in verses 12 and again in verse 18, His rights meant the right to become the slave of all, or as we see here, the right to benefit and build up others in the body. Again, we are reminded of those sober words of Philippians chapter one, verse 21, where Paul writes, for me to live, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

Jesus, we remember, taught the parable of the good Samaritan to show even the expert in Old Testament law how to love his fellow men. We see it in Luke 10, 25 to 37. Paul’s injunction here to seek the good of the other strengthens the rejoinder that he makes also. But all things do not edify. So the seeking the good of the other is to do that which edifies, which builds up the other edifying and seeking someone else’s good or the same thing.

Christians in Corinth face the very practical question whether they might accept invitations from unbelievers and be guests at their tables. The Greek text indicates that these invitations were rather commonplace. Verse 27. If one of the unbelievers invite you and you want to go eat anything that is set before you without asking questions for conscience sake, Paul writes. The scene is not now a dining room in a pagan temple, but rather the home of a Gentile. How does a Christian witness effectively when he is invited to dine with an unbeliever? was the question raised to Paul. Paul himself has indicated that he becomes all things to all men, including the Gentiles, in order that he might win them for Christ.

See chapter nine, verses 20 to 22. To decline invitations for fear of eating meat offered to an idol would rule out the possibility of presenting the claims of Christ to that person. And to ask questions about the food that is served and then to refuse to eat it would be an unnecessary affront to the host who invited you. Paul’s advice here is very simple and very direct. If you want to go, go and eat what is placed before you. He puts the choice before every individual. He neither commands nor encourages, but wants the individual to decide.

He realizes that Christians in Corinth have family obligations and social commitments which ought not to be broken. Through these bonds, actually, with family and community, they may, in fact, be able to advance Christ’s cause. With an open mind, then, they should consider an invitation, even to a Gentile home.

In verse 26, the reason given by Paul here is a quotation from Psalm 24 and verse 1, indicating that everything belongs to the Lord. Though the pagan may offer the meat to his idol, the Christian knows that that meat comes from the goodness of the Lord and from no other source. Therefore, even though there may be some doubt as to what has happened to that meat on its way to the table, the divine origin, God as the giver of such gift, makes it all right for the Christian to partake. Now, we know from Jewish literature the writings of the rabbis that this particular Psalm citation, Psalm 24 verse one was a citation customarily used in prayer said at a mealtime in order to give praise and thanks to God for the abundant goodness which he has bestowed upon his creatures. In contrast, however, to the rabbis who employed the words of Psalm 24 one, in their mealtime prayers, Paul provides an additional interpretation by accepting and giving thanks for all kinds of food.

We can hear in this an echo of the heavenly voice that told Peter not to consider unholy what God has cleansed. You think of the vision of the sheet coming down from heaven in Acts chapter 10 and verse 15, and the word spoken to Peter not to consider unholy what God has cleansed.

By implication, Jewish Christians could buy meat at the meat market and should not ask questions about the origin of such meat when they consumed it. Paul seems to intend to convey that even if food had been offered to an idol, it should not be a matter of conscience for the Corinthians because God is the Lord of creation. The overarching principle is that the Christian does not seek his or her own good, but that of the other, that is, the good of one’s neighbor. But that must not be construed as eliminating personal freedom. Having used the concrete example of marketplace food, the apostle insists on freedom in these matters.

The blessing offered at one’s meal, predicated on God’s prior ownership of all things, the earth is the Lord’s and all things contained therein, means that no fellow Christian may condemn another on this question of what one another eats and what one gives thanks for.

In verse 30, If I partake with thankfulness, why am I slandered concerning that for which I give thanks?” Paul asked. We come then to a therefore, to a so then or a therefore in verse 31. So then, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. In these concluding remarks, Paul utters the same sentiments he writes more expansively elsewhere in Colossians chapter three, verse 17. One of his prison epistles, you might remember.

There in Colossians 3.17, Paul says, whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God, the Father. In summation, then, Paul exhorts the Corinthians to live their lives for God’s glory, for the good of the other, to do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of faith, he says in Galatians 6 and verse 10. To do good to the household of faith, the church of God, which is in Christ Jesus.

When Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11 and verse one, be imitators of me just as I also am of Christ. It is not enough for Paul that he appeals to his own example. They are to follow, imitate that example in the same way that he has imitated Christ. The emphasis in Paul’s words in 11 verse one, is certainly on the example of Christ, which for Paul finds its primary focus in Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.

Thus, as we saw in chapters one to four of First Corinthians, the antidote for the Corinthians haughty behavior predicated on worldly wisdom and knowledge is, as Paul says, the word of the cross, Christ and him crucified. Christ crucified the power of God to them who are being saved in accordance with the gospel.

Whether then you eat or drink or whatever you do, beloved, do all to the glory of God. Again, whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. Beloved, there is nothing so big and there is nothing so small that you think or say or do that lies outside these parameters. Whatever you do, whatever you do in thought or word or deed, do everything for the good of the other and for the glory of God. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself on these two commandments. Jesus says depend the whole law and the prophets.

So you have learned Christ Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love just as Christ also loved you and gave himself up for us an Offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma Whatever you do do all In the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father, whatever you do for the glory of God and for the edification of the other, for your brothers.

Amen and amen. Even as Christ loved us and gave himself for us. Let’s pray together. Our father, we would remember the example, the pattern of Christ. Even as the apostle sets himself as an apostle before the congregation in Corinth, he does so by way of reminding them that his pattern, his example is Jesus. And so we too would pattern our lives such that whatever we do, whether it’s getting up in the morning, brushing our teeth, going to school, going to work, dealing with our families, going to the workplace, whatever we do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus and that for the good of our neighbor, the good of our husband, the good of our wife, the good of our children, the good of our coworker, the good of our fellow member in the body of Christ, the other, that one whom Jesus loved. May we love even as he loved us. Hear our prayers. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. I ask you to join with me in

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

February 26, 2017