The Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 11:17-33)

Hello listeners, this is Pastor Chris here.

We had a little technical difficulty at the church on Sunday, so the sermon did not record.

So you're gonna be hearing this a little differently here today from the comfort of my home office.

Wanted to make sure to get this sermon out one way or another.

So if things sound a little different, if I sound a little different, that is why.

Today we're gonna be in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, and we're gonna be covering verses 17 through 34.

1 Corinthians 11 · chapter mention

So I'm gonna read that first and then we'll jump into our text.

Now, in giving this instruction, I do not praise you, since you come together not for the better, but for the worse.

For to begin with, I hear that when you come together as a church, there is divisions among you, and in part I believe it.

Indeed, it is necessary that there be factions among you, so that those who are approved may be recognized among you when you come together.

Then it is not to eat the Lord's supper.

For at the meal each one eats his own supper.

So one person is hungry while another gets drunk.

Don't you have homes in which to eat and drink?

Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing?

What should I say to you?

Should I praise you?

I do not praise you in this matter, for I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you.

On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, and then he gave thanks, broke it, and said, This is my body, which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

In the same way he also took the cup after supper, and said, 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.

So then whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sin against the body and blood of the Lord.

Let a person examine himself in this way, let him eat the bread and drink from the cup.

For ever eats and drinks without recognizing the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself.

This is why many are sick and ill among you, and many have fallen asleep.

If we were properly judging ourselves, we would not be judged, but when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined, so that we may not be condemned with the world.

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, when you come together to eat, welcome one another.

If anyone is hungry, he should eat at home, so that when you gather together, you will not come under judgment.

I will give instructions about the other matters whenever I come.

So last week we talked about authority, and we talked about head coverings, and I was very thankful that Ben got to give that message instead of me.

I say that jokingly because it's a very hard passage to teach through, but he did a wonderful job.

But that passage that we went through began a section regarding how to act as the body of Christ.

A section where Paul basically says, when you come together, it should look like this.

And this section today will continue along that same vein through chapter 14.

It's all about the body of Christ and functioning in a healthy manner.

It's all about preferring one another and living sacrificially for the sake of the church body.

And that's what our text is about today.

But before we begin, I want to ask you a question.

I want you to mold this over and think about this.

What are the two things that Jesus left us to be symbols of his body?

Well, the first is communion.

Jesus actually says, This is my body, do this in remembrance of me.

The second symbol that he left us is the church.

You know, Paul's about to tell them in the next chapter, in chapter 12, you are the body of Christ.

And what I hope we can all leave here today with is that those symbols really go hand in hand with one another.

So let's start off by looking at verse 17.

Now, in giving this instruction, I do not praise you, since you come together not for the better, but for the worse.

You know, I read this verse and I think, ow, Paul.

I mean, because when you think about what this really means, he's saying you're better off if you don't meet as a church.

He's saying when you do meet, you're worse off when you leave than when you came.

You know, when you think about this, could there be any worse insult to a church when Paul is telling them you're better off not meeting as a body together?

Which I think raises the question what is the purpose of meeting together as a church, as the body of Christ?

Well, I think three of those reasons Paul's covering right here in 1 Corinthians.

You know, the first is to fix our eyes on God and on the head of the body, which is Christ, to get the focus off of ourself and connected to the head.

That's really what we talked about last week at the beginning of chapter 11.

Now, another reason that we come together as a body is for communion, which we're gonna be talking a lot about today.

The Lord's table, the symbolism of Jesus' sacrifice in our place.

The third thing that I think we can glean of why we meet as a body is really what we're gonna be going over next week in uh chapter 12.

And that is we come together to support, to encourage, and to admonish one another, which, like I said, we're gonna be talking a lot about next Sunday when we talk about exercising spiritual gifts for the benefit of the body as a whole.

But today it's about taking communion in a worthy manner.

That's what we're mainly going to be talking about.

Look at verse 18 with me.

For to begin with, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you.

And in part, I believe it.

You know, as we talk uh about uh as we talked about, I should say, the intro to 1 Corinthians, Paul is responding.

This whole letter to the 1 Corinthians is Paul responding to a report he received about this church.

That's why he says right here in this verse, I hear that.

And I wonder if the end of verse 18 is a bit tongue-in-cheek.

Because he says, and in part, I believe it.

It's like Paul saying, you know, I've only heard one side of the story, but it's consistent with what I've seen.

So, you know, I tend to believe this report enough to address it with you, having only heard one side of the story.

Verse 19.

Paul goes on, indeed, it is necessary that there be factions among you, so that those who are approved may be recognized among you.

Usually I think we think of factions in a church context as a bad thing.

You know, we start to think of cliques and things like that, you know, separating one group as being more important than another group or something along those lines.

But we need to think of this as those that are saved and following Jesus and those that are not.

Those are the two factions that Paul's talking about.

The first group being those that should be taking communion, and then the second group being those that should not be taking communion.

You know, you'll often hear us at the church as we're about to take communion, and we'll say that if you're not a follower of Christ, you know, you can just stay in your seat.

It's better that you don't take communion if you're not following Christ.

And you'll soon see why here in a little bit, why we often say that.

But first, I want to revisit Acts chapter 2, verses 44 through 47, which we covered in our home groups a while back.

Acts 2:44–47

And here we get a descriptive glance at what the first church was doing in Jerusalem.

And it was a picture of health.

So I want to read that to you.

Acts chapter 2, verses 44 through 47.

Acts 2:44–47

It says, Now all the believers were together and held all things in common.

They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all as any had need.

Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple, and broke bread from house to house.

They ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.

Every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

Now I want to take that verse and compare that with what we're about to read in verses twenty-two through twenty or twenty through twenty-two, and this is Paul painting a picture of what the Corinthian church is doing.

He says, When you come together, then it is not to eat the Lord's supper.

For at the meal each one eats his own supper.

So one person is hungry while another gets drunk.

Don't you have homes in which to eat and drink?

Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing?

Can you see the difference between that picture we get in Acts and this picture that Paul creates of this Corinthian church?

In Acts it says that they held all things in common.

So if one had a need, the others chipped in to help.

Now in Corinth, it says the rich enjoyed their riches while the poor were left hungry, and the poor were watching the rich enjoy their riches.

And what Paul is getting at in verse 22 is that it would be better if you didn't have a meal at all than to do what you're doing right now.

Now I want you to remember back to when we were talking about the makeup of this church in Corinth, the diversity of this church in Corinth.

When we did the introduction to 1 Corinthians, I likened it to if we had an outreach here in Atascadero.

You know, and in that time I asked you to envision a bunch of people at this outreach giving their life to Jesus for the first time.

Some of these people were employees of a strip club.

Some were people that are living down in the creek here in town.

Some were local prostitutes, some were substance addicts, some were well-respected people from the local Jewish synagogue, and some were high-ranking city officials.

And all of those different people groups gave their life to the Lord.

And I asked you to imagine what it would look like if they all showed up here at the church the next Sunday to join us and become a part of this existing body to become a part of our church.

You know, that's a beautiful but really messy situation.

It would need a lot of time, it would need a lot of attention.

Now, the church in Corinth really isn't that different than that scenario that I just painted for us.

From what we can make out here in verse 21, they're having what we would call today a potluck.

But it seems as if one of two things is happening while they're having this potluck in this very diverse group of people that's meeting together.

So they're either letting the rich go first and take as much as they want, since they most likely brought the most food to this potluck.

And the poor that are going last aren't getting much or anything at all and are leaving hungry.

Or here's the second scenario of possibly what's going on here.

The rich that bring the most are tired of bringing more than they receive, so they started holding back what they brought and are just eating it for themselves.

Kind of having the attitude of, you know what, I barbecued this tri-tip, I'm gonna eat this tri-tip.

I'm not sharing it with anybody, I'm just gonna hold this back and eat this by myself.

Now, with that, we need to realize that some of these Corinthians may be unemployed because maybe their previous job was as a temple prostitute, and they had to walk away from their job when they started following Christ.

Or maybe they're a slave and they don't have anything to bring to this meal because they don't own anything, and all that they eat is what's given to them by their masters.

Now, regardless of the scenario, the rich are not sharing their abundance with their poor brothers and sisters.

They are stuffing themselves, and some are even getting drunk, while others watch, and then they go home hungry.

You know, it sure doesn't sound like they're preferring one another, does it?

Now, look at the first part of verse 22.

It says, Don't you have homes in which to eat and drink?

And Paul is not speaking out against potlucks here.

I want to make that clear.

Basically, what he's saying is if you want to feast, don't you have homes to do that in?

And if you're going first in line at these public potlucks that the church is holding, make sure that there's enough for everybody that comes after you.

That's Paul's heart behind what he's saying here.

That's why he finishes verse 2 with, or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing?

You know, the last place the poor should get humiliated is with the church.

But that is what the church in Corinth is doing.

And as we're seeing and we'll continue to see in the weeks ahead, these church gatherings were chaos.

So Paul addresses this straight on.

He says in verse 20, you're not gathering for the right reasons, and you're not gathering to eat the Lord's supper.

The rich are gathering to feast in front of the poor, while the poor are being humiliated.

So Paul's really saying, What's the point?

What example are you being of the body of Christ by doing this?

You know, especially as we think about this throughout scripture, how offensive this would be to God, because we see that God cares deeply for the poor, and he cares deeply for the hungry.

In the Old Testament, God told the Israelites to not harvest the edges of their fields so that the poor could come and could glean.

And then Jesus said in Luke 14, 13, When you host a banquet, invite those who are poor, maimed, lame, or blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.

And then Jesus says again in Matthew 25, 40, he said, Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.

And the Corinthian church wouldn't even, you know, with these instructions that they know of, the Corinthian church wouldn't even help those in their own body that were in need.

That's what Paul's addressing here.

And not only that, these rich people were flaunting what they had right in front of those who were in need.

And there's nothing wrong if if God blesses you with riches to enjoy those riches.

But if you're enjoying those riches at the expense of the poor, if you're enjoying those riches in front of the poor and aren't sharing with them, that's what the church in Corinth is doing, that's what Paul is addressing.

And that leads us to the second half of verse 22, where he says, What should I say to you?

Should I praise you?

I do not praise you in this matter.

So Paul rebuked them for that, but he brings it back to the heart of communion.

And we're going to see that in verse 23, where he says, For I receive from the Lord what I also passed on to you.

So he's already taught them about this apparently in the past, but he's going to remind them again.

He goes on, On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, 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 and said, 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.

Now, notice Jesus gave the bread and the cup from a common meal, much like what the Corinthians are attempting to do.

But I don't get the impression that Jesus and Peter stuffed themselves at the Lord's Supper, and that James and John ended up taking off from that place hungry, you know, and in want.

You know, one of the big themes that we addressed multiple times in the book of Romans was that we are all on the same playing field.

Whether you're Jew or Greek, whether you're rich or poor, whether you've been walking with Jesus for 50 years, or you just started following him today, there is no partiality in the kingdom of God.

And no part of the body is more important than another part of the body.

And the body, as we learn through scripture, especially here in the New Testament, the body is supposed to take care of one another.

Which leads us to verse 27.

Look at that with me.

So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sin against the body and blood of the Lord.

And your translation that you may be holding may say, we'll be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

What Paul is saying here is if you're living in sin, and we should probably define that, living in sin means that you know you're sinning and you're making no attempt to stop.

You're basically saying, God, I know this is sin and I'm gonna do it anyway, and I don't care what you think.

That is different than struggling with sin, where you really don't want to be sinning, and when you find yourself in sin, you have a repentant heart and you're asking for strength to not do it again.

That's the difference between living in sin and struggling with sin.

So what we're talking about here is if you are living in sin, or if you're coming to these meals and you're getting drunk, or if you're coming and eating a really good meal in front of somebody that is starving, and then your next act is communion, there's a bigger issue that's going on here.

And I think the best way to summarize it is like this don't take the body of Christ if you're not acting like the body of Christ.

I think that's really the summary of the whole section.

You're gonna hear me say this multiple times before the end.

Don't take the body of Christ if you're not acting like the body of Christ.

I think that's at the heart of what Paul's message is to the Corinthian church here.

If you're not acting like you're a part of the body of Christ, the church, then you are degrading the symbolism of the body of Christ.

You know, you may be ritualistically taking these symbols of the body and blood of Christ, but it has no reality in your life.

It has no palpable evidence.

As we talked about in the beginning today, you know, our actions, our love for one another within the body of Christ is a representation of the body of Christ.

Jesus actually says this in John 13, verses 34 through 35.

John 13:34–35

He says, I give you a new command.

Love one another.

Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another.

But this, or by this, rather, everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.

Do you see love coming from this picture that Paul has painted of the Corinthian church gatherings?

I sure don't see that when I see this.

You see, our actions can't symbolize greed and drunkenness and apathy toward the poor and the widow and the orphan, and then we turn around and our next action is taking communion, which is a symbol of the perfect literal sacrifice, which is the body of Christ.

That's what it means to take communion in an unworthy manner, to have that apathy towards all of those things I just mentioned, and then to turn around and consume the symbols of the body of Christ.

You know, I was a part of a church for a few years that used this verse nearly every time we took communion, specifically the part about not taking it in an unworthy manner.

And as I was young in my faith and misunderstood this verse, you know, I thought, man, if I sinned last night or if I sinned this morning, then I'm unworthy to take of the elements, you know, at that service.

And maybe, you know, I'd have these thoughts of maybe I shouldn't take communion this morning because I've sinned recently.

But thank Thankfully, years later, I realized how wrong I was in my thinking, which I'm going to explain after verse 28, but we need to look at verse 28 first for all of this to make sense.

So look at that with me.

Let a person examine himself in this way, let him eat the bread and drink from the cup.

I think what this is really saying is you better take inventory of your actions.

You better take inventory of how you are presenting the body, or I should say, how you are representing the body of Christ.

Again, don't take the body of Christ if you're not acting like the body of Christ.

Like I was saying, I took this verse out of context for a long time.

You know, asking myself, am I worthy to take communion based on my recent sin?

If our self-examination is did I sin recently, then we'd all be taking communion in an unworthy manner every time.

Or we'd all have to sit out of communion because nobody would be worthy of taking it.

Because, as I learned, it's not as if we can make ourselves worthy.

And I think this is what I was misunderstanding all those years.

We are never worthy based on our deeds, good or bad.

We are only worthy based on Jesus' deeds.

And our sin shouldn't keep us from the Lord's table, and it should actually make us run to it.

Our sin should make us realize how much we need Jesus and make us that much more thankful for his body and for his blood that was given for each one of us.

And I realize now that these verses this morning are about how we're treating the people sitting around us more than anything else.

Asking the questions, you know, are we loving one another?

Are we preferring one another?

Are we taking care of the poor and the sick among us?

Are we sacrificing our own rights to build up the people that are sitting next to us?

Ultimately, are we acting like the body of Christ?

Are we acting like Jesus?

That is the examination Paul is talking about right here in this verse.

We can't be selfish within the body of Christ and then consume the symbols of the body of Christ.

That is what it looks like to be unworthy to take communion.

Look at verse 29 with me.

For whoever eats and drinks without recognizing the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.

This is why many are sick and ill among you, and many have fallen asleep.

If we were properly judging ourselves, we would not be judged.

You see, if we're properly judging ourselves, for asking if we look like Christ, if we are making sure that we are following Christ and his example, if we care enough to not live in sin, we would not be judged.

And I can hear the questions already that are probably running through your minds at this point.

Wait, Chris, you know, are you saying that some people get sick and some even die because they say they are Christians, but they don't act like it?

You know, honestly, that's what I see here, right here in these verses.

And I can see the follow-up questions that come.

You know, wait, wait, wait.

I thought Christians would only be disciplined and not judged once they come to Christ.

Well, verse 29 through 31 here in 1 Corinthians 11 are not referring to the judgment or the final judgment.

These verses are referring to a discipline type judgment, as we'll see in verse 32.

Look at verse 32 here.

It says, But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined, so that we may not be condemned with the world.

You see, God would rather discipline us now.

He would rather bring correction now so that we don't end up being judged in the final judgment.

That's why verse 32 ends with, so that we may not be condemned with the world.

So we will be disciplined by God, just as a loving earthly father will discipline his children to keep them from further damaging themselves.

Um, just like we see in Proverbs chapter 3, verses 11 and 12, where it says, Do not despise the Lord's instruction, my son, and do not loathe his discipline.

Proverbs 3:11

For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, just as a father disciplines the son in whom he delights.

You know, and when we think about it, discipline is never fun.

You know, I can't think of a single time that God, or my parents for that matter, disciplined me, and I was like, yes, like I know this is so good for me.

Bring it on, let's have some more of this.

It's typically more like, ow, this hurts.

Can we be done with this already?

But the thing is, a little bit of discipline consistently is what keeps us from slipping further and further away from the Lord.

And it's so that we may not be condemned with the world, as we see right here in this verse.

And in this context, God was disciplining with sickness and even death.

Now, I want to make sure that you please hear me in this.

I'm not saying that if you are sick, that you are being disciplined, or if somebody died that they were being disciplined.

But what I am saying is that these are tools that God will use from time to time to discipline us and to get us back on the right track.

Look at verse 33 with me.

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, when you come together to eat, welcome one another.

He's just saying, be hospitable, wait for one another, prefer one another.

Instead of humiliating some, why don't you guys just welcome all and treat everyone the same and treat everyone fairly?

Verse 34, he goes on, if anyone is hungry, he should eat at home, so that when you gather together, you will not come under judgment.

I will give instructions about the other matters whenever I come.

Again, this isn't speaking out against potlucks.

This is saying, if you're looking to feast, don't pig out at the potluck.

Eat what is appropriate and where all can be satisfied.

And if you want to feast, you can feast at home.

That way you won't have to worry about this judgment that he's been talking about through this.

And then Paul ends this section with, When I come to you, I'll teach you more in depth about the church functioning as a symbol of the body of Christ.

And I think as we come to an end here today, what we really need to apply, you know, our church does great potlucks.

I don't think we have any application.

We haven't, I mean, at our potlucks, if you go home hungry, that's your own problem because you didn't get enough food.

But there's always leftovers and there's always plenty for every everybody.

But I think the way that we do apply this is in that self-examination process.

By examining ourselves and asking, are we being a proper symbol of the body of Christ?

As I said, it's not about did I sin lately or what have my actions been lately?

That'll never measure up.

It's about asking, are we being a symbol of the body of Christ?

Are we claiming to be a Christian and also acting like Jesus by loving and by preferring one another?

Thank you so much for joining us this week.

Pray that you have a very blessed week, and we'll catch you next time.