Most People Miss This About the Lord's Supper — 1 Cor 11

Hello, and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Okay, all right, ready to go, no red light. First Corinthians chapter 11, down to verse 21, where we left off in our last half hour. Again for those of you joining us on television, we're just an informal program. I've got to put that in there, otherwise you'd wonder what's really going on. We are totally informal, and we want people to just study the Scriptures, and we like to do it in an atmosphere like we do in our home Bible classes, with a cup of coffee and on a table, and you can write notes. And we trust that a lot of you out on television are joining us under that same kind of a format. My, we get a kick out of these letters, you know. This one gal wrote one time at 7 .30 time for the program, and the dogs and the cats and the kids and everybody come together, and they watch Les Feldick. So, we don't care how you do it, but we trust that you'll take your Bible and check us out. Oh, I want people to see what the Book says. I've said it so often, it doesn't matter what I say. All I'm trying to do is get folks to search the Scriptures, and if you're comfortable that I'm wrong and you're right, God bless you. But we do want you to at least search the Scriptures, and again we have to remind you that all the past programs from Genesis 1-1, all the way up through the Gospels and Acts and Romans and now in the Corinthians, are all available on videotape, and in a little while we'll have the audios available, and also of course the printed page, the little books that you see on the screen every once in a while. Alright, back to I Corinthians chapter 11, we were dealing with the Lord's Supper and how again Paul had to upbraid the Corinthians because they were abusing it. They were totally abusing it, and before they would actually have what we would call the official Lord's Communion table of the Unleavened Bread and the wine or the cup, they would have a potluck supper. Now you've got to remember again the circumstances, and that's what makes the Bible interesting. Historically and environmentally everything makes a difference with the circumstances. Now here the Corinthian believers were a make up of a few Jews, more than likely more Gentiles, but from the whole strata of society. Now naturally in that day and time, what kind of people were at the bottom of the totem pole socially? Slaves, bond slaves, and then of course you had your wealthy merchant men who probably had ships out at sea, and Corinth was their home bay. So you had this whole cross section of society, even within that little congregation. Now when they had a potluck supper, hey people are people, they haven't changed a bit. Today if you're going to have a potluck supper, whether it's at your church, or at your golf club, or wherever else, what are the bottom echelon people going to bring? Well what they can afford, and that will be more or less the mundane things, the cheaper things that they can afford. And maybe some of them couldn't afford anything, but they were free to come. Now you come on up through the scale, and people bring various levels of food, and so forth. But what do you suppose the wealthy brought? They brought the best French wine, and they brought the best meat, and the best vegetables. See they could afford it. Now I can imagine, a little before Paul writes, that the poor people were just gouging themselves with the things that the wealthier people were bringing. They had never tasted wine so good, and so they just guzzled it until what was wrong. They were becoming gluttonous, they were becoming drunk. Then according to Paul's next verse, in verse 22, it would indicate that now the people were separating themselves during their potluck supper, and the wealthy was saying, You're not going to eat the good food that I've brought, you're not going to drink our good wine, you go have your own table. Well that's the furthest thing from what the church is supposed to be. And so this is what they were doing. They were dividing themselves now according to their status in the culture. And Paul was just shocked. Now he says in the first place, you didn't come to church to fill your bellies with food and drink, but this is what they were doing. And they were abusing. Now there's nothing wrong with a potluck supper once in a while. I'm not one of those that says you can't eat when you come together as believers. In fact I think that's probably the highlight of our classes here in Oklahoma, and even here at the studio. After an hour of teaching we take a coffee break, and these gals bring out the best that there is. And all our classes enjoy these little half hours or so of a fellowship time. Same way here in the studio. My little wife just loves to bake all the cookies. Some people don't want to be classed as being home baking cookies, but she doesn't mind. So all day she bakes cookies for this afternoon, and we have a nice time of fellowship in between programs. There's nothing wrong with that. But they were abusing it. And they were coming in, and they were being gluttonous at the food, and they were actually drinking so much that they became drunk. And you say, Christians? Yeah, no wonder Paul was shocked and upset. Now then verse 22. I think he's just going to put the whole kibosh on the thing. And he says, What? Have you not houses to eat and to drink in? Now that's obvious. He wasn't talking about the elements of the Lord's table for goodness sakes. He was talking about their potluck dinners. He said, If you can't do it right, then eat at home. Don't try to bring that into the church environment. Have you not houses to eat and drink in? Do you despise the Church of God? And shame them who have not? See what he's saying? Especially to the wealthier people. He said, How dare you flaunt your wealth by bringing all this expensive gourmet food when you know that there are other people at slave level and so forth. They can't afford things like this. So Paul says, Cut it out. Quit it. Read on. What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? What does he say? I praise you not. And so he is gently condemning them by just simply saying, I can't praise you for this because this is not the way it should be done. Now verse 23. He's going to come in, and he's going to give the real purpose for what we call the Lord's Supper or the communion table. Again, I'm going to emphasize that it has nothing to do with the salvation of these Corinthians. These Corinthians are already saved in spite of their behavior. They are saved, they're believers, and the lack of practice of the Lord's table has nothing to do with their salvation. But now we'll see how Paul delineates the reason and the purpose for the Lord's table in the church program. Verse 23. For I have received of the Lord, now do you see what he says? He didn't get it from the Twelve in Jerusalem. He didn't get it from some seminary. He didn't get it from some denominational bigwig. Where did he get it? He didn't get it from the Lord. Now let's see where he always comes back to that. Go back with me to Galatians, because I want you to be able to compare Scripture with Scripture. Galatians chapter 1. We've looked at these verses before, but we'll look at them again, and we'll probably look at them again in the future, because they are tantamount to our understanding of Paul's apostleship. Galatians 1. But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. Neither did I receive it of man, neither was I taught it by man, but by revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now you've got to remember, where is Jesus Christ all during Paul's revelations? In glory. And so everything that Paul writes concerning our doctrine today, is from the Ascended Lord, after his death, burial and resurrection. And remember, until he went to that cross and died, he was not the object of faith to the main run of Gentiles. But once he had finished the work of the cross, and revealed his plan of salvation to this apostle, then it becomes that gospel, as he says in chapter 2, which I preached to the Gentiles. Do you understand that? So he says, I wasn't taught it, but I received it by the revelation of Jesus Christ. Then you come down to verse 15, where he says, And it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by His grace, to reveal, that God could give this man the revelation of Jesus the Son, and that I might preach him among the Gentiles, that immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood, neither did I go up to Jerusalem. Do you see how the Holy Spirit is prompting the man to write definitively that he had no contact with those 12 men at Jerusalem? So when he speaks of revelation, he is always referring to that which Christ revealed from His position in the heavenlies. Then you come into chapter 2, and he goes up to Jerusalem to convince the 12 that his gospel to the Gentiles was not connected with Judaism. And so he says, I went up to Jerusalem again by revelation. What does he mean? God instructed him to go up to Jerusalem and meet with the 12 Gentiles. You go up to Jerusalem, and I communicated unto them that gospel, which I preach among the Gentiles. So everything that Paul has revealed to him to pass on to the Roman world, was revealed from the Ascended Lord in glory. Not from the 12, not from the earthly ministry of Christ, but from the Ascended Lord. Come back to I Corinthians chapter 11, and verse 23 again, he uses that same word. For I have received of the Lord, that is by a revelation, that which I also delivered unto you. Now remember, by the time Paul writes the I Corinthians letter, the church of Corinth has been operating long enough to build these excesses. They've been going long enough now that they're getting all these kooky ideas coming in. And so this isn't what he taught them at the beginning. This has been an evolutionary thing. It's been moving from one position to another, and it's getting worse instead of better. And so this is why he says, this isn't what I delivered unto you at the first. This isn't how I taught you to practice the Lord's Supper. You know men can connive, can't they? Boy they can come up with the craziest ideas, and sometimes it's good, but see it leads to excesses. And so that's just exactly what happened here at Corinth. I imagine that when they got ready to have the Lord's Table, they realized, well now we can't satisfy a whole day's energy with a little cup or swallow of wine, and one little piece of unleavened bread. And so they said, let's just start bringing some food and we can have a real supper out of it. But it led to excesses, and so now Paul has to bring them some criticism. So he tells them exactly how it all came about. Look at what he says. This is what the Lord revealed to him, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he break it, and said, Take eat, this is my body which is broken for you, this do ye, as off as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. Let's go back to Matthew 26, I hope I've got time to do all this. Let's go back to Matthew 26, I think it's 26 or 27, I'll have to look a second, 26. Matthew 26, dropping all the way down to verse 17, Matthew 26, verse 17. Now the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, the disciples came to Jesus, saying to him, Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the Passover? And he said, Go into the city to such a man, and say to him, The Master saith, My time is at hand, I will keep the Passover at thy house with my disciples. And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them, and they made ready the Passover. Now when the evening was come, he sat down with the twelve. Now I haven't got time here, and I'll probably stir up a hornets nest, but you see when they ate the Passover lamb, what was the position at the table? Standing wasn't it? So if they were to be standing to eat the Passover lamb, that is back during Exodus. They were to stand and eat the Passover lamb with their feet shod, because they were ready to go. Now the custom I don't think had changed all that much, so when he sat down there was a regular meal that they ate before they killed the Passover lambs, if I understand Passover. So this is the last supper, but it's not the Passover lamb. So he sat down with the twelve to eat the last supper before they would start killing the lambs. And then you come all the way down to verse 26, and as they were eating, now that was at a recline. As they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to the disciples, and He said, Take eat, this is My body. And He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, and said, Drink all of it, for this is My blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father's Kingdom. And when they had sung the hymn, they went out. Now why did I read this to you? Does Jesus give any doctrinal exposition on the bread and the wine? Not a word. All He says is, this is My body which is broken for you, and then He says this is the blood of the New Testament which is shed for you. But no explanation. No instructions on how to practice it from here on, nothing. Well now let's go all the way back to Genesis chapter 14. And here comes this hard to pronounce name out of Jerusalem, Melchizedek, the High Priest of Salem, which was the little village which later became Jerusalem of course. And in order to get the backdrop, you remember Abraham had put together a little army out of his servants and so forth, and had recaptured the people of Sodom who had been taken captive, and he's coming back after their victory. And here's a little aside that is loaded of course with a lot of prophetic impact. And this Melchizedek, this High Priest of Salem, who was not a High Priest of the Jews, that hadn't even been formed yet. And so here comes this Melchizedek, the King of Salem, and he brought forth bread and wine. Now that was not what they normally used in the sacrifices of Abraham's day. So why in the world did Melchizedek offer bread and wine? Well it was a subtle prophecy, oh so subtle, because what did the bread and the wine as Jesus now administered it in Matthew chapter 26. And now if you'll come back again to I Corinthians chapter 11, hopefully I can tie all this together. What was the subtle prophecy when Melchizedek brought bread and wine of all things? The resurrection, and that's what the whole idea of the Lord's Supper is. That it is to be a constant reminder, that every time we partake of that bread and of that cup, it is a reminder of that finished work of the cross. And this is the first time it's explained. In fact one commentator puts it this way. This is probably the first time that Jesus is quoted chronologically in the Scriptures, because the Gospels haven't been written yet. So Paul couldn't delve back like I just did, and go to Matthew or one of the other writers, and say this came by revelation. And isn't it amazing how God does everything in His own order? But before the Gospels were ever written, Paul writes to the Corinthians the very same words. Now read on. I Corinthians chapter 11, verse 26. Verse 26. Here is the doctrinal reason for the Lord's Supper. For as often as you eat this bread, and drink this cup, you do show forth, or you remind yourself of what? The Lord's death. Now I want to point out two things. There is no stipulation from the Apostle as to how often a church practices the Lord�s Supper. I don�t care if your denomination practices it every Sunday, that�s your prerogative. If you want to practice it once a year, that�s your prerogative. If you want to practice it once a quarter, or once a month, or however, that is not the thing here. The Word is whenever you have the Lord�s Supper, whether it�s often or whether it�s not as often. That�s beside the point, but you better have the right mindset when you do, and that is that you are reminding yourself, not the person next to you, not someone across the church, but you�re reminding yourself that Christ died, His blood was shed, and He arose from the dead. That�s the only purpose of the Lord�s Supper, and it is to be a solemn experience. And again, the Corinthians were so abusing this beautiful picture in Types by their indulgence with food, getting half drunk on too much wine, how in the world could they receive the impact of such a solemn service? And Paul had to upbraid them, and he says, �Stop it. You do your eating and your drinking in your home, but when you come to the Lord�s house for the Lord�s Supper, it is a solemn occasion.� Now if we have time we�ll go on a little further. So he says, �Whenever you do this, you show the Lord�s death until He come. The Lord�s table will not stop until the Lord returns.� Now then, verse 27, here comes the Apostle�s description of what our attitude should be as we partake. Ephesians 2. �Wherefore, whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself.� Now there�s the secret, I think, to behavior at the communion service. You don�t examine the next person, and you don�t sit there and judge the guy across the church, but you look at your own heart. You look at your own attitude, and you say, �Am I right with the Lord? Am I right with my fellow believers?� And if you can say, �Yes,� and �Amen� to that, then you feel free to partake. If you can�t, you better withhold, because then you are drinking and eating condemnation Reading on in verse 28. �Wherefore, whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.� Now in verse 28 we read, �Then let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup, if the self examination is okay with you, and you are content that you don�t have bitter enmity with a fellow believer, and that you�re right with the Lord, you�re free to partake.� absolutely you are. Then let a man examine, for he that eateth and drinketh unworthily. Now all that means is, he that partakes of the Lord's table with the wrong attitude. The Corinthians were going in almost with an attitude of revelry, totally wrong. Many others of the Corinthians had a real thing against someone across the room, someone that they had probably taken to a court of law over something, and their enmity was just like sparks. Paul says that won't work. You cannot take the Lord's table with that kind of an attitude. So he says examine yourself, and then verse 30. Ephesians 2. Since the Corinthians were guilty of so many things that should have kept them from partaking, for this cause many are sick and weakly among you. In other words God was already chastising them by taking away their health, and many are asleep. Now we have to understand that there is from John's little epistle in the back of your Bible, that there is a sin unto death. I don't think we have time to go back and look at it. But John warns you don't pray for it. Even though you think somebody is awfully out of step, you never pray, Lord take them out. That's not our prerogative. But the Lord does have that prerogative, that if a believer will not shape up, and if a believer continues to walk in known sin, then yes, God will take them. Because He's not going to let anybody drag His name through the mud. Now we know that there are people who have made profession of salvation, and they've probably been members of a church, and they're doing the same thing. And if the Lord doesn't deal with them, if the Lord doesn't chastise them, then Paul teaches in the book of Hebrews that they are not His children. You don't know how many people have asked me, well I've had so-and-so in the church, they were good church members, and then all of a sudden they ran off with some young woman and left their family. Are they still saved? Well you know what my answer is, they never were. Because if they were saved, and they did something like that, then God would take them out. And that's what He means here when He says that many are sickly, and many of you are already asleep. They died. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a weekly Bible study. 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