CRCF\u201d\u201d8-15-10<\/p>\n
VIDEO\u201d\u201dfrom The Passion of Christ with Scripture<\/p>\n
If the bloody Cross of Jesus Christ is not where your heart and mind goes Sunday after Sunday when you come to this Table, then you miss the point of coming!<\/p>\n
THAT is the heart of all we are about as a church!<\/p>\n
THAT is the heart of the Lord\u201d\u2122s Supper, which is what we\u201d\u2122re going to think about this morning.<\/p>\n
Sharing a table together with others was huge in the culture of Jesus\u201d\u2122 day. To open up your table to others was to accept them and welcome them into your family\u201d\u2122s life.<\/p>\n
So, it\u201d\u2122s NOT insignificant, nor surprising, that Jesus\u201d\u2122 left as a reminder of His saving sacrifice a meal, a table where all who will trust Him may come and feast.<\/p>\n
Ronnie McBrayer<\/p>\n
Early in his ministry the Pharisees and other teachers of the law sought to bring Jesus into the fold. They invited him to dinner, to the customary cocktail parties to get to know him better, to steer him in a more appropriate direction. When he wouldn\u201d\u2122t act right, they quit inviting him. They quit eating with him: One of the greatest shows of disapproval one could display in Jewish society. He became a persona non grata \u201d\u201c unwelcome at their table.<\/p>\n
What did Jesus do? He began to associate with, socialize with \u201d\u201c yes even eat with \u201d\u201c tax collectors and notorious sinners. By sitting at the table with these pariahs, he was welcoming them, so to speak into the family of God. Jesus didn\u201d\u2122t misunderstand the culture. He knew exactly what he was doing by breaking bread with a pack of extortionists, prostitutes, indicted criminals and drunks. He was putting on a display of his own: I am, as God\u201d\u2122s Anointed One \u201d\u201c his sent representative \u201d\u201c giving you the God of the open arms, not the clinched fists. So the late night dinners, the banquets and suppers Jesus attended, which earned him the title of \u201cglutton and drunk\u201d were not just free-wheeling good times. They were acts of invitation, acts of bridge building, acts of communion.<\/p>\n
And so Jesus left us with a table, a meal\u201d\u201dso that we can also grow together in our love and devotion to Him, while inviting others to come to the table\u201d\u201dwith simple trust in Jesus\u201d\u201dand join us.<\/p>\n
Time for a quick history lesson:<\/p>\n
From the resurrection and ascension of Christ to about the year 300AD Christianity was very primitive. It was organized. There were pastors and congregations, but not as we have known them here in North America. It looked a whole lot more like what we might find today in China or some Islamic countries. It was an underground movement, subversive, meeting secretly in homes and catacombs, often persecuted and viewed with great suspicion by the Roman Empire. Communion, during these early days, was as I described it earlier \u201d\u201c part of a larger celebration \u201d\u201c a communal event. These were the days of the Jesus movement, not Christianity as religion . . . We have collected to ourselves, what Alan Hirsch calls, \u201cthe clutter of unnecessary traditional interpretations and theological paraphernalia;\u201d and we have lost the utter shocking simplicity of gathering at the table together, as the followers of Jesus. (McBrayer)<\/p>\n
Come to the Table
\n1 Corinthians 11:17-34<\/p>\n
The Lord\u201d\u2122s Supper grounds us together in Jesus\u201d\u2122 saving sacrifice.<\/p>\n
1 Corinthians 11:17-34 (CEV)<\/p>\n
17Your worship services do you more harm than good. I am certainly not going to praise you for this. 18I am told that you can’t get along with each other when you worship, and I am sure that some of what I have heard is true. 19You are bound to argue with each other, but it is easy to see which of you have God’s approval.
\n20When you meet together, you don’t really celebrate the Lord’s Supper. 21You even start eating before everyone gets to the meeting, and some of you go hungry, while others get drunk. 22Don’t you have homes where you can eat and drink? Do you hate God’s church? Do you want to embarrass people who don’t have anything? What can I say to you? I certainly cannot praise you.
\n[The Early Church called their gatherings \u201cLove Feasts\u201d\u201d\u201dspeaking of God\u201d\u2122s love for them in Christ and their love for one another in Christ.]
\nPiper
\nThe church is the body of Christ (1Corinthians 12:27), the bride of Christ (Ephesians 2:25-27), the dwelling place of God (Ephesians 2:22). And you eat and drink as though you are the center of the universe and the gathered church were nothing.
\n23I have already told you what the Lord Jesus did on the night he was betrayed. And it came from the Lord himself.
\nHe took some bread in his hands. 24Then after he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Eat this and remember me.”
\n25After the meal, Jesus took a cup of wine in his hands and said, “This is my blood, and with it God makes his new agreement with you. Drink this and remember me.”
\n{Brief Explanation of Transubstantiation, Consubstantiation, Symbol}
\n26The Lord meant that when you eat this bread and drink from this cup, you tell about his death until he comes.<\/p>\n
27But if you eat the bread and drink the wine in a way that isn’t worthy of the Lord, you sin against his body and blood. 28That’s why you must examine the way you eat and drink. 29If you fail to understand that you are the body of the Lord, you will condemn yourselves by the way you eat and drink.
\nMessage
\n29 If you give no thought (or worse, don\u201d\u2122t care) about the broken body of the Master when you eat and drink, you\u201d\u2122re running the risk of serious consequences.
\nRay Stedman
\nGod guards the Table from unworthy partaking. Now, what that means, of course, is what Paul has just been rebuking these Christians at Corinth about. They were partaking in an unworthy manner because they were careless, selfish, and indifferent to the needs of others.
\nPiper<\/p>\n
There are no perfect saints at the Lord’s table. We are all debtors to grace. Forgiveness is our only hope of acceptance.
\nRay Stedman
\nWhat does “discerning the body” mean? It means two things: First, it means understanding the meaning of the symbols. The Body of Christ is involved, his death on the cross for us, his life made available to us. But then it means also our concern and care for others who are members with us in this Body. We are members one of another, and we recognize those ties.
\nThese warnings are to US, as the church, as followers of Christ about how WE come to this table!
\n30 That’s why many of you are sick and weak and why a lot of others have died. 31If we carefully judge ourselves, we won’t be punished. 32But when the Lord judges and punishes us, he does it to keep us from being condemned with the rest of the world.
\nRay Stedman
\nGod had to say to some of them, “Look, I can’t trust you any more down there. Come on home where I can keep an eye on you.”
\n1 Corinthians 10:14-17 (NLT)
\n14 So, my dear friends, flee from the worship of idols. 15 You are reasonable people. Decide for yourselves if what I am saying is true. 16 When we bless the cup at the Lord\u201d\u2122s Table, aren\u201d\u2122t we sharing in the blood of Christ? And when we break the bread, aren\u201d\u2122t we sharing in the body of Christ? 17 And though we are many, we all eat from one loaf of bread, showing that we are one body.
\nIf we love anything more than Jesus when we come to this Table, then we dishonor His death and resurrection for us!
\n33 My dear friends, you should wait until everyone gets there before you start eating.
\nMessage
\n33 So, my friends, when you come together to the Lord\u201d\u2122s Table, be reverent and courteous with one another.
\n34If you really are hungry, you can eat at home. Then you won’t condemn yourselves when you meet together.
\nAfter I arrive, I will instruct you about the other matters.<\/p>\n
The Lord\u201d\u2122s Supper grounds us together in Jesus\u201d\u2122 saving sacrifice.
\nRay Stedman<\/p>\n
Nothing is more revealing than to see what your attitude is when you come to this central act of Christian worship.<\/p>\n
The Lord\u201d\u2122s Supper grounds us together in Jesus\u201d\u2122 saving sacrifice.
\nSo, what about children and the Lord\u201d\u2122s Supper?
\nShort and simple: parents, it\u201d\u2122s up to you! I won\u201d\u2122t keep your children from this table because Jesus told the children to come to Him\u201d\u201dthey CAN understand and trust Jesus. But only you can determine whether they do or not.
\nAgain, the warnings here are all to BELIEVERS and about HOW WE come to the Table.
\nWhat if you\u201d\u2122re here this morning and you say, I know I need a Savior, I need forgiveness from God, I want know His love and not His condemnation, but I\u201d\u2122m just not sure\u201d\u201dI struggle to believe that it can be so good, so free, so amazing!<\/p>\n
Listen to what one man said to Jesus:
\nMark 9:24 (NLT)
\n24 The father instantly cried out, \u201cI do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!\u201d
\nJesus didn\u201d\u2122t chastise him\u201d\u201ddidn\u201d\u2122t tell him he ought to have more faith! He healed the man\u201d\u2122s daughter\u201d\u201dand, in doing so, essentially said, \u201cThat\u201d\u2122s OK! I\u201d\u2122ll take that little bit of trust that you have and I WILL help your overcome your unbelief!\u201d
\nSo, Jesus says to you, dear friend, \u201cCome to the Table! One step at a time, come, follow Me!\u201d
\nThe Lord\u201d\u2122s Supper grounds us together in Jesus\u201d\u2122 saving sacrifice.
\nIf you need God\u201d\u2122s grace in Jesus this morning, come to the Table!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CRCF\u201d\u201d8-15-10 VIDEO\u201d\u201dfrom The Passion of Christ with Scripture If the bloody Cross of Jesus Christ is not where your heart and mind goes Sunday after Sunday when you come to this Table, then you miss the point of coming! THAT … Continue reading