(audio cuts out) All right. Okay, so let's take a look at our passes tonight. We'll pray and then we'll jump in, okay? Let's take a look at our passes for tonight here. Let's see, it says in 1 Corinthians 11:17-34. And it reads, "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 fractions 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.

"The 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 receive from the Lord "that which I delivered also to you. "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 a new covenant in my blood.

"'Do this as often as you drink 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 asleep.

"'But if we judge 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'll arrange when I come.'" All right, let's take a moment to pray and ask for the Lord's blessing on our study tonight. Father God, I thank you so much for your grace. I thank you, God, that again, we have the privilege of coming together. I pray for every single one of us.

If there's any of us who are feeling weak or tired from the weeks, I pray, God, that you would strengthen us. Lord, I pray that you, through your spirit, would continue to empower us to persevere through the busy weeks, persevere through our own fatigue. I also pray, God, that you would continue to inspire us.

Lord, as you, through your scripture, show us what it means to live for the sake of your glory, live also in a way that is pleasing and honoring to you in the church. I pray, God, that we would be inspired. We thank you in Christ's name, amen. Okay, so I hope you guys had good discussion in your tables.

The first section that we wanna cover is verse 17 through 22. And in looking at this passage, I ask you this question. Apostle Paul is obviously displeased, to say the least. And he says, "I will not praise you," okay? "Because you come together not for the better, "but for the worse." And then he repeats it later on in verse 22.

In this, "I will not praise you." So I see that as a little section. Now my, I guess, activity or the warmup that I had you guys do is try to list some of the problems and sin in this passage. Circle the words and phrases and identify the problem, okay?

So real quick, can some of you guys just throw out, again, it's just observation, so throw out the various sins and problems that you see. - Divisions exist. - Divisions exist. - Drunkenness. - Drunkenness. - Drunkenness. - What else do you guys see? People just running and getting a bunch first.

- They come with the wrong motives. - Coming with the wrong motives. What else? Okay, shaming those who have nothing, shaming the poor. What else do you guys see? That's pretty good. Pretty good list we have working there. Now if you were to take those multiple things he's mentioning, saying, "Oh, you guys are doing this "and you guys are doing that," and you try to hone in on, is there perhaps a summary term or at least a focal point to which he's getting at when he sees this problem in the church?

What do you guys think? (silence) What was that? - Selfishness. - Selfishness, okay. Interesting. Yeah, there's definitely a whole lot of selfishness there when you see the people going out and getting things first, thinking of themselves, and he's like, "Man, if you wanted just to do things for yourself, "couldn't you do it at home?" (clears throat) But for me, that's not, I guess, that's definitely an element in there, which I guess you could say even a cause of it, but there is a big problem that he sees as a major problem in this scenario.

What is that problem? - Having no reverence for the Lord's Supper. - Okay, having no reverence for the Lord's Supper. Good. Let's jot down a few. I have on your packet, let's see here. Two major, I guess, lines. Okay, two major lines for that. And the first line, can you guys put what Alex had mentioned, that there is irreverence?

That there is irreverence. So, in one way, you can look at all the stuff that they're doing, whether it be like, all you guys are getting drunk, or some of you guys are running down the aisle. It's pretty hilarious. I told you guys, I think I shared a story one time about my first experience with communion, and this was hilarious, because I went with my buddy, and we weren't Christian at the time, and back when I was at that church, we were in youth group, and this was my, I think, end of junior year in high school.

The way that we did communion at that time was essentially, everybody would line up, the pastor at the front would hold a huge loaf, and then another pastor would hold a cup. Well, what's funny is, you take, the pastor breaks the piece of bread for you, and then you're supposed to dip it in the cup, and you're supposed to eat it.

Well, I just remember, because of the scene, the both of us, as soon as the pastor said, "Hey, we're opening up the communion, now come down," we just ran. Boof, we came running down. Mainly it was 'cause we were bored out of our minds, and we were hungry. We came running down, and then the guy in front of me, he went first, he grabbed it, he dipped it, he ate it, but I wasn't paying attention, 'cause I was a little nervous, too.

And what I did was, I just grabbed the bread and ate it, and I got to the cup, and I was like, "What do I do?" So I just grabbed the cup, and I tried to drink it like this, and the pastor shoved my hand out of the way, and said, "What are you doing?

"Just go, just go," and I was like, "Oh." He just got rejected from my first communion. It was pretty hilarious. But I do remember taking that communion with a kind of a sense, like a ignorance, a sense of just naive, like we're just kids, just doing whatever, you know?

Just a little bit. (laughs) And there's a sense in which, the reason why I tell that story is because you could maybe read this as saying, "Hey, the people are acting like fools. "They're acting naive, they're acting like kids. "You know, it's kind of like a bunch of kids "running to the dinner table, some of them are first, "they're just selfish," which they are, which is true.

He says it. But the fact of the matter is, all that points to a greater problem, in that there is irreverence. When you look at that term in verse 17, for they come together, not for the better, but for the worse, that word for the worse in Greek, is a word that represents moral wickedness, okay?

Moral wickedness. And so as he's thinking about this, yes, he's talking about selfish indulgence, shaming the brother, et cetera, but there's a sense in which the people are scandalizing the church, because there is wickedness and irreverence for that which is holy in the church, okay? So the first major problem that he's seeing here is not simply, "Man, you guys just are a mess.

"Every time you guys have communion, "you guys are just unorganized, "and you guys are just selfish, "you guys are a bunch of kids." That's one way to look at it. The other way to look at it is, you guys are irreverent, right? So that's what's happening here. Now, the second thing, as I guess almost a result of that, you notice from the entire passage that we read, there is another problem, like a big problem, that almost concludes from that, which is?

Divisions, okay? So the second blank really played in divisions. Divisions, yeah. So if you were to read chapter 11, and then you go all the way to chapter 14, and you read the whole thing, you're gonna find that Apostle Paul takes it upon himself to talk about division in the church with an emphatic tone of, "We cannot have division as a body of Christ." And if you remember back even from chapter one, Apostle Paul desired us to be of the same mind.

Apostle Paul desired us to be united, right? What's very interesting is when he says in the passage, for that in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that divisions exist among you. And he says, "I believe it." The rest of the verse almost shows why Apostle Paul believes that there are divisions.

He sends the thing, "Look at the division. "I believe it, I see it, here it is." And so he sees as a major problem the division that's taking place in the church. And really, what's interesting about it too, is he uses descriptive words, because the term for division is schismata, which means tearing or cutting apart, okay?

And I just want you guys to think about it a little bit. He says in this verse, "You guys are coming together as a church." And for those of you guys who are in BCC class, what does the church, or what is the church? Or, what? - I think Ed said body of Christ.

- Okay, good. It is the body of Christ. And the Greek term for that, that we cover in BCC class, ekklesia, which means those who are called out, right? And that, but just more formally speaking, is the assemblies, those who are unified by the fact that they're called out by God and for God.

And so he's saying, "You guys, by nature, are the church, "and you're coming together as a church, "but then there's divisions among you." And so Apostle Paul is making a huge point here that this, again, is not a small problem, but a big one. So, in thinking about this for a moment here, I want us to, I guess, take a moment to think about the church and the divisions that exist, all right?

And then I'm gonna introduce an interesting thought, okay? So right now I'm making the point that the church and Corinth, they're digressing, they are broken in many ways, they are divided, and there's irreverence for the Lord, okay? In verse 19, he makes an interesting statement. He says, "For there must also be fractions among you, "so that those who are approved by, "so that those who are approved "may become evident among you." And here is an interpretive challenge for us, because I'm making the point, look how bad it's going.

The church is in a horrible state. They're irreverent towards God, and there's fractions. But then, in verse 19, it reads, "For there must also be fractions among you," almost like saying, this is just how it is. Or is that really what he is saying? So, let's do a little exercise here.

And I want you guys to look at the passage, and let's observe some of the phrases that are there, okay? First, we realize that there's that term, you know, where there's a for there, and then we ask, like, what does the for do? It connects with the previous thought.

He says there's these divisions among them, which, again, as a church, there shouldn't be. But then he says, "I believe it." So perhaps this, again, this verse in verse 19, is just connecting that Apostle Paul believes there's fraction because of this, right? But then, there's that word, must. Must.

And there's a question as to, what does he mean by must? Now, in some of your other translations, like the NIV translation, he says, "No doubt there have been differences among you." Kind of like saying, huh, I believe it, 'cause I just assumed. So is he kind of saying, like, oh, there must be divisions among you, saying, like, of course there are, you're human, no doubt, everybody knows that, you know, there's gonna be divisions.

What is he saying? What's a possible interpretation of this verse? But then we notice that there is a purpose clause, in order, okay, in order, which shows purpose, and it says, "Those who are approved "may be evident among you." Interesting. So here's my question to you now. I list for you several possibilities that I've seen in different commentaries.

The first one, is he giving a statement of reality? Hey, division is unavoidable. Where there are people, you're gonna have drama. And where there is drama, you're gonna have people who don't like each other, and there's gonna be divisions. Or is he sarcastically saying, I heard there's division, and I believe it, because look at y'all, you know, he's kind of sarcastically saying something.

Is this a statement that division is a natural cause of men trying to stand out? So that interpretation takes a focus on men who are approved wanting to be evident? Is this an issue where people want to become evident, so as they're competing with each other, of course there's divisions?

Or letter E, the division exists so that the truth about the spiritual nature of men would be known. What do you guys think is a proper interpretation of that verse? - Four. - You like number four? - The division exists so that the truth about the spiritual nature of men would be known.

- Okay, interesting, and why do you like that one? - Because as you said, he gives the purpose, there's an outcome of these divisions, and the outcome is that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. - Gotcha. - And so, I mean I think he's saying that the church is a mixture of people who are genuine and people who are not genuine, the weak and the terror.

And there has to be a separation, there'll still be some mixture until the end, but there will be divisions that separate some of them. - Right, okay. Okay, good. So David is focusing on the second part of the verse to help us interpret the verse appropriately, right? So, which is a good practice to, so sometimes certain things help us to understand it because of what it says.

So yeah, I agree in the sense that that latter half of the verse tells you a purpose of why he's saying that statement of, hey, there must be divisions. And if you read it again and again, it's kind of hard to tell if you just think of like, I wonder how he's saying these things, but if you focus on the purpose, I agree.

That this passage is not saying like, hey, what can we do, or like, so what I'm saying is, I kind of don't like the NIV translation of that. It's like, hey, no doubt, of course, you know? I think more so along the lines, it is this idea that in a church that's striving for unity, there is still going to be division, okay?

And so, let's talk about that a little bit, and let's think about that. And I'm not sure if I'm doing the best job explaining this, okay? Church should be united, and the fact that there is division is bad, okay? But then the statement we have is, there is division, there must be.

And then there is a greater purpose that God uses that vision, the division, which is to essentially make it apparent as to the spiritual condition of men, right? And from that, I think there's something to be learned. I think, for me, when I think about that, and so I want your gears to go, what can be learned from something like that?

I think about sometimes how I react to divisive people, okay? I think about how I react to divisive people, and there's a sense in which the existence of that element of whether it be immaturity, wickedness, is an opportunity for the church to grow and show itself to be strong.

What I'm saying is, I get kinda convicted by that passage as I'm thinking about that, because how I react to that spiritual individual, if I see a divisive person and I say, "Ugh, that guy is this and that," and then I go like clamber and I go do all this stuff, spiritually speaking, what it exposed was that spiritually, I'm weak too.

Does that make sense? And I think there's something to be learned from that is because there are people who, yes, want to strive for unity, holiness, and sanctification in the church, but somebody who sees the greater picture should recognize that in that struggle, the division, the heartache, and sometimes the pain of wrestling with those things exist.

I think, for me, as a young guy, sometimes I'm like, "Ugh, why is there a drama?" And you just get frustrated. You just get frustrated. Sometimes, again, in a, I don't know, a sense of immaturity, we see the unspiritual, and then through our anger or frustration, we try to rectify the thing, which again causes greater division.

Sometimes in our immaturity, we might look at something like this, where it's talking about the communion, it's talking about the Lord's Supper, how come you guys come running over like you're hungry? What are you doing? And how come you guys aren't thinking about the poor? What are you doing?

Forget this! I don't wanna be a part of this! Is that more spiritual, to see the problem, and then say, "Let's destroy it?" No, it is not. And that's what I'm talking about when I say, "Let's take a moment to think about it "and learn a principle here." Divisions exist, and temptation and causes of division exist.

It's an opportunity God uses to show us the spiritual makeup of the church. Does that make sense? Yeah. So, in seeing this first section, Apostle Paul addresses the major problems, the irreverence and the kind of wickedness that's brewing. He sees the schism, the division that's occurring in the church, but then he also shows that in the context of all things, God is still using that scenario, okay?

Any questions about that? Okay. Then, let's look at the second part of it, verse 23 to 26. Oh. I left a big blank next to the title because it's good practice for you to try to summarize that, try to encapsulate that somehow into a short little phrase or a sentence.

And you guys can just do that, you know? I'll leave that for you to do. (pages rustling) Okay. Let's take a look at verse 23 to 26. And it says, "For I received from the Lord "that which I also delivered 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.'" Okay? My question to you that I had you guys discuss was, from this passage, what is the purpose of the communion? Why don't you guys share what you guys discussed?

(pages rustling) - To remember Christ. - To remember Christ. Okay, so in one of your big blanks, that's right, to remember Christ. I find it so, I guess, encouraging. I think God recognizes we are forgetful people. He set into the pattern of our worship, a pattern of our regular practice of church, and the gathering of people that we break bread and remember Christ, okay?

And the thing about it is God knowing mankind so well, he did this long ago as well. Can you guys turn your Bibles to Exodus chapter 12, verses 11 through 13? (pages rustling) In Exodus chapter 12, is the inauguration of the great, great feast, the thing to be remembered for the generations to come, which is called the Passover, okay?

And if I could just have one of you guys please read verses 11 through 13, we'll take a look at the Passover as a memorial that God installed for the people, okay? So, let's see, can I have, Jarena, can you read verse 11 through 13, please? - In this manner you shall eat it, with your bell-tossing, and with all your tea and your saffron and your milk, and you shall eat it in peace.

It is the Lord's Passover, for I will pass your land and keep it, but may I have the choice of all the firstborns and their offspring, both man and beast, and of all the gods and people of the earth, and of the Christ and of the Holy Spirit. And I am the Lord, and the blood shall be as mine, and the life of the world shall be as mine.

- Okay, thank, oh, go ahead. You have, did you read all of verse 13 already? - No. - Okay, go ahead. - So when I see the blood, I will pass it over to you, and no plague will befall you, until you show your face, and when the fire strikes, the land will be yours.

- All right, thank you, okay. So as you read that verse, I wanna recall to your memories what's happening in Egypt. Remember that the people of God are enslaved and oppressed for 400 years. They're beaten, they're killed, they're put to work carrying the heavy stones of Pharaoh, and then they cry out to God, and God hears their prayer.

And so God starts to judge the Egyptians, and then he starts to bring down miraculous plagues, everything from cutting off their water source and making it into blood, their animals dying, their livestock dying, boils and sores, and they're in pain. Hail is falling from the sky. Gnats are everywhere.

All this kind of stuff is happening, and in the 10th plague, they say, and God says, I'm going to kill the firstborn. An angel of death is gonna come through. What always struck me about that passage is, I asked the question, is God judging Egypt? Then why in the world is God's people having to cover their houses with blood?

And it reminds us, it's not just Egyptians that are being judged by God. It reminds us that the wrath of God is upon everyone. It's upon everyone. That even the people who are there in Egypt deserve to die in that same way, okay? Now in thinking about that, God installed this Passover feast where it's an incredible drama.

You have the whole family gathered together, and everybody is dressed. When you guys come home after a long day at work, the dress shoes come off, you get into your basketball shirts on, and then you eat dinner in front of the TV or talking to your family. Whatever it may be.

But here he says, put on your shoes, put on, gird up your loins, take your staff, don't even make the bread arise. Make the bread flat. Eat it in haste. It's kind of like, okay, everybody gather together. Everybody comes on the table, ready to eat. Nom, nom, nom, nom, nom.

It's like, what's going on? God was trying to teach them, you too are in danger of judgment. And what needs to happen is you need to escape. But your only way of escape is to have the blood cover you. And when the blood covers your household, then the angel of death will pass over you.

What an amazing picture. And so, I just want you guys to jot this down, that this meal of the Passover was a very dramatic scene. And what would happen in Jesus' time, and in the times of, again, the Old Testament saints and whatnot, the head of the house, the host of the ceremony, would pronounce blessing over the meal, and they would have four different cups of wine.

The first cup of wine, he would pronounce just simply the blessing, and then he would pass it around to everybody. And after the first cup was taken by everybody who was present, they would eat bitter herbs dipped in the fruit sauce, and as they're eating, the host would start to give a message.

Turn in your, as you are in Exodus chapter 12, go over to verse 14, because this is how God presents this. In verse 14, it says, "Now this day will be a memorial to you, and you shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord. Throughout your generations, you are to celebrate it as a permanent ordinance." And then go to verse 24 through 28.

And if I could have, let's see, Randall, can you read for us verse 24 to 28, chapter 12 of Exodus? (Randall speaking faintly) (Randall speaking faintly) (Randall speaking faintly) (Randall speaking faintly) Great, thank you. And so, what would happen is, after the host of the family would remember this whole thing, and he would give a message as to, "What in the world are we doing with this ceremony?

What is the meaning of this?" And he would talk about how the fact that God spared us in Egypt, that God passed over us because of the sacrifice of the Lord. And then after he would do that, they would take part in the next cup, and as they were doing that, they would sing what's called the halal, which literally means praise.

It's related to the word hallelujah. Okay, so the spelling in the front part of hallelujah, that little song that they would sing would be the halal. And it essentially comes from Psalm 113 through 118. And after they start singing the beginning portion of this song, they would take the bread, break it, and then each person would eat, and then it'd pass around the third cup.

And then after the third cup is passed around, the host, or the head of the home, would bless everybody, and then they would take a fourth cup, and the fourth cup is to celebrate the coming of the kingdom, and they would drink to this. I sometimes wonder, you know, like, if you think about the drama of that whole celebration, I mean, it's pretty involved.

That's a pretty long, like, series of things to do, and that's a lot to think about. And there's a sense in which that ceremony, even in the Old Testament, as their Passover, it was supposed to be a celebration. And then I sometimes think about this question, why, perhaps for some of us, that celebratory aspect of the communion or what we partake in is not there?

It's because I wonder. I wonder if we feel that same sense of, like, oh my goodness, God passed over me. I deserve to be judged, I deserve to die there in Egypt, I deserve to either be left there as a slave, die in the devices of the pagans and the enemies of God, or I myself deserve to die by the angel of death.

But God passed over me. Hallelujah, right? Hallelujah. And so it's supposed to signify for the people of God that kind of deliverance, a supreme deliverance by the mighty hand of God through miracles, through his power, delivered from that which there was no way to escape except for blood. Okay?

And then Jesus Christ, in the moment when he's sharing this meal with his disciples, he essentially, as the host, the head of the disciples there, he is instituting this dinner, he's presiding over this ceremony, and that's when Jesus Christ, in taking the cup, in Luke chapter 22, verse 19 to 20, he starts to give it a full, a fulfillment of exactly what it's supposed to represent.

The shadow was there, Christ explains what it's supposed to represent. And so, that whole act of taking the bread, that whole act of taking the cup of the blood, we are supposed to remember. Just like the Old Testament saints were supposed to remember, we are to remember. It's not just an issue of calling back facts.

God has instituted this ordinance that we practice in our day of the communion, that we might relive it, that it might affect us, that we might be just engrossed in this idea. God has passed over me through the blood of Christ. Right? So remember everything about Christ. Remember that he came to be flesh.

Remember his work of healing and ministry of teaching. Remember the work of sacrifice on the cross and the suffering. Remember him for all that he is. And the Lord's Supper for us, the communion, celebrates the permanent and spiritual victory that is the ultimate deliverance from God's wrath. Okay? That's what we're supposed to remember.

So, from thinking about all that, we can see why Apostle Paul is quite upset as the way they're approaching the communion. But before we move on, there is an element of the communion that I think that is sometimes overseen. What is the second purpose or another purpose that you see about the communion?

Okay, so there's memory of the new covenant is blood. Good. So, I'm gonna wrap that up together with remembering. Remembering the sacrifice, remembering the new covenant. Okay? And there's an element in simply just remembering all that Christ has done and his promises to us. So, very good. But what's another aspect of the purpose of the communion?

Yes. Proclamation. Proclamation. Okay. So, the second blank there is proclamation. And if you look at the passage, (clears throat) here, he mentions this starting from verse 26. Says, "For as often as you eat this bread "and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death "until he comes." And there's, just in that short little phrase, there's an aspect of two things.

One, you're proclaiming his death on the cross, that you are not ashamed of it, that you are caught up in it, that you're identified by that. But then he says, "You proclaim that until his coming." So, there's an aspect of looking forward, the proclamation of his coming. Right? And the reason why that's important is because for you guys who've been here at Berean long enough, you know very well that we do not, we tell people that you need to be somebody who has genuinely surrendered to Christ, received the Lord, and that you proclaim his name.

Because that's what you do when you take part in that. In remembering, in taking a part, you are participating in that fellowship of communion, you are proclaiming also, this is what I believe. You're proclaiming to not just the congregation, but anybody who would see that. This is the one whom we trust and believe, okay?

So, those are the purposes that we see for the communion. So again, given that, that communion was supposed to be by the design of God, a remembrance for the saints. And by the design of God, this was supposed to be a proclamation of his truth, you can see why Apostle Paul is sitting here saying, "How irreverent of you guys." You can see why Apostle Paul is saying, "Look at this ordinance and all that it represents, "what are you doing?" Right?

So, let's tackle the last segment. Okay, and I have Diane. Can you please read verse 27 through 34? (distant speaking) (distant speaking) (distant speaking) (distant speaking) (distant speaking) (distant speaking) (distant speaking) (distant speaking) (distant speaking) (distant speaking) Okay, cool. So, for your table discussions, I asked kind of a really broad question.

And I asked from verses 17 through 34, but we're focusing right now on verses 27 and down to 34. What do you think is the main exhortation to the church in this passage that we're studying? And then I asked, how do you think we can apply? So, can some of you guys share, what do you think is the main exhortation, and how can we apply?

How about somebody from that table there? You guys. (distant speaking) Examine yourself, okay? So, remember, I typically always go through and I underline or I try to take note of every major verb. And he flat out says, you must examine yourself. If you are to eat of this communion, if you're supposed to partake of this, examine yourself.

Okay? And what I'd like you to do, just for a moment, is, you know, as you hear that exhortation, I do wanna ask the question, how do you apply that? Right? How do you apply, first and foremost, something like, hey, examine yourself, check yourself, you know? What do you guys think?

'Cause, hey, examine yourself, to me, doesn't feel the same as like, just read your Bible. It's like, okay. You know? (distant speaking) Yes? - Pray like, the best you're supposed to. - Good. I don't know, again, how regularly. I feel like sometimes I pray for certain needs. I always pray for strength, I pray for perseverance, but I don't know how many, you know, how often I sit and just say, hey, God, I just wanna take a moment.

Can you help me examine myself? 'Cause it's a little awkward, too. I find that sometimes it's hard to pray those prayers where I'm actually interacting with God. There's a sense that it's easier to pray in terms of letting God know what's going on, and then asking Him to give me something, and then I'm done, as opposed to almost anticipating a response from the Lord.

God, what are things in my life? And if you remember, there's a lot of passages like this. Can you jot some of these down? Psalm 139, 23, 24. Psalm 139, 23, 24. This is one that you guys have probably heard a lot. Search me, O God, and know my heart.

Try me and know my anxious thoughts, and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way. That's a pretty powerful passage. Psalm 26, verse two. Psalm 26, verse two. Examine me, O Lord, and try me. I don't know if those words hit you a little bit, but to be able to say those words honestly before God is quite an unnerving thing.

God, test me, right? Put me to the test. He says, test my mind and my heart, he says. Job, Job is actually quite a righteous man in the Bible. Righteous as we can say righteous. But in Job, chapter 13, verse 23, chapter 13, verse 23, he says, how many are my iniquities and sins?

Make known to me my rebellion and my sin, O Lord. Finally, Galatians, chapter six, verse four. But each one of you must examine his own work, and then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone, not in regard to another. So, lately I feel like there's been a lot of talk about discipleship, and the need for some personal disciple to come into your life and tell you everything that's wrong.

Which can be very, very helpful if your heart desires it, and the other person who's the discipler who wants to do that, okay? But there is also a sense in which this passage is challenging us, right? The passage straight up reads, you need to examine yourself. And that needs to be something that we first begin with a hard attitude, a hard attitude that's open, a hard attitude that says, I want to make sure that those things to which I need to change, those things which I need to grow, is a conviction from my own personal discovery.

It's a conviction that I've had from examining myself, and then seeing where I need to go with the Lord, right? And I think that's, again, something that's valuable for every single one of us to do. Okay, so very good. Thank you, Franny, for mentioning that. But here's another question.

What else do you guys see as, when I ask the question, what is the main exhortation, and how can it be applied? There is another exhortation that he's giving, but it's not as direct as, hey, examine yourself. But from the rest of the passages that you see from verse 27 to 34, what do you see as another exhortation?

- Care for the church. - Care for the church, very good. He does talk about caring for the church, and I'm gonna say that is a exhortation that's gonna be a running theme from chapter 11 all the way to chapter 14, okay? So very good, 'cause that's in there.

But there's another exhortation that I see more specific simply to this paragraph. Any ideas? - Wait for each other. - Wait for each other, good. So as an application, he starts saying, wait for each other. What does he say at the very end of it? He says, wait for another, if someone's hungry, let 'em eat at home, and he gives all these applications, right?

I am looking, sometimes I ask questions where I'm looking for a specific answer. Sorry, I'm doing that right now. It's not good for open-ended stuff, but let me lead you to that, okay? Earlier we began with me asking you, what is a major problem that Apostle Paul sees in this church?

And the first answer was, what? (laughing) That's so funny. He second-guessed you, okay. What's the first blank you guys have filled as the first problem that you see? What was that? Irreverence, okay? So then, thinking about it, what do you think is the application, or what do you think is the exhortation?

Chen? - Everyone else says irreverence. - Everyone else says, don't be so afraid to be wrong, dude. Remember, I lay down easy. What? Oh, okay, just being modest, huh? All right, that's cool. Well, think about that for a moment, because if you notice what's happening in the passage, look at verse 27 through 34, and then he starts talking about, okay, if whoever eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, when you think of something like that, that's a broad category.

Like, what does he mean by unworthy? And if I were to ask you, in this context, what are they doing that's an unworthy manner? You should start filling those in a little bit. And then he says, shall be guilty of the body of the blood of the Lord. Okay, what does he mean by guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord?

And he says, he must examine himself. Okay, so that was exhortation. You need to examine yourself, you need to test yourself. And then he starts giving this, in verse 29, this idea of for, okay? So, you need to examine yourself why. 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, sick, and a number asleep. If I were to categorize this rationale, okay, therefore, whoever eats in an unworthy manner is guilty. And then, so, but a man must examine himself because if you eat and drink like this, there will be judgment.

Because if you eat and drink like this, there are many of you who are weak, sick, and dying. Right? Those, to me, are consequences of your actions. Right? So, not only should you just simply take your relevant, sorry, reverently, you need to take this incredibly seriously to the degree that you recognize the consequences of your actions when it comes to the Lord's table.

Right? So, yes, one exhortation is you need to examine yourself, but the other exhortation simply is you need to take this seriously and with reverence. Because of what it stands for, because what's happening. Did you know that for many years, the Supreme Court had debated about, is it illegal to trample on the American flag?

To burn it, to whatnot. And for a huge chunk of time, they kept debating about it. Back in like, you know, 1880 something, they started the debate. 1907, they said, oh, we shouldn't, you know, we shouldn't like forbid it because what would happen is some people were burning the Confederate flag.

And they're like, ah, we can understand why. And so they decided to make it not illegal. But then 20 years later, they made it illegal. And it stood illegal for a long, long time until a liberal group essentially said, hey, we have the freedom of speech. So around 1987, they decided, hey, it's not constitutional.

You can burn flags now. But why would the Supreme Court battle, go back and forth, to make it illegal to take a piece of cloth and then burn it? Because of what it represents, right? Because of what it represents. To come to the church, which is the representation of the body of Christ, and then to come to the church, to the communion table, which is the representation of what Christ has done, and the proclamation of him coming and his kingdom coming, and then to approach it with a reverence, Apostle Paul says, do you not understand?

There are clear and severe consequences to that. There's gonna be the chastisement of God. There's gonna be judgment. And some of you are seeing it now. You're weak, you're sleeping. Sleeping is a euphemism for some of them are dying. And if that boggles your mind, it should. It's a what?

In the church? Are they Christian? Yeah, I do believe those people who were put to death for their irreverent behavior in the church were Christians. But there's a sense in which they experienced the ultimate chastisement in this life, which is to end it, okay? That's what I believe. But just think about that for a moment.

If the communion represented the cross of Christ, what would we be doing if we just approached it with a sense of like, man, who cares? If you turn your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 10, verse 28, 29, there's a, I don't know, very sobering, I guess is the best way to put it, very sobering passage.

Hebrews chapter 10, verse 28 and 29. Huh, 28 and 29. Because the author of Hebrews is trying to show us severity by making a comparison. In verse 28, he says, "Anyone who has set aside "the law of Moses dies without mercy "on the testimony of two or three witnesses." So this is exactly how it happened in terms of judgment in the Old Testament against the law of Moses.

Verse 29, "How much severer punishment "do you think he will deserve "who has trampled underfoot the Son of God "and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant "by which he has sanctified "and has insulted the spirit of grace?" I don't know why if many, you know, it somehow gets into our head.

Because we are in the New Testament, because we have Jesus Christ, because we have the Holy Spirit, because we have the church and because we have the promises of God, for some reason, sin is less severe. But that's not the rationale of the Bible. That's not the rationale of the Bible.

Because we have the Holy Spirit, because we have the church, because we have the sacrifice of Christ, because we have the blood of the perfect Lamb, sin is actually even more severe. That's the logic of the Bible, right? And so again, Apostle Paul, in the exhortation I believe from this passage, as we think about the problems in the church, you know, what unworthy manner is he thinking about?

It could include, some of you guys are just doing this out of ritual, some of you guys are coming in this out of selfishness. You see this as an opportunity to, you know, pompously come up first, eat all you can and leave scraps for the poor. Some of them, maybe spiritual pride and arrogance for recognition, whatever it may have been.

Some of them, they just don't believe. They just come up and like, "Huh, I guess we're doing this today. "I don't believe it, but whatever." What, I don't know, right? I can only imagine what he's trying to say by unworthy manner. But Apostle Paul is being very clear. This is a sacred ordinance by Christ that I have received from the Lord and I deliver it to you.

Take it seriously. Take the church seriously. Take the consequences seriously. And that's a sobering encouragement to us, okay? All right, any questions about this passage on the section that we studied today? Okay. You got a question? (laughing) - Just a comment. Just, you know, there's always like the, people say, you know, you're causing division because of your different doctrines, you know?

Like, who cares about that stuff? Divisive, you know? And like, so I think, yeah, I think this is, and then they'll bring up this verse, you know? They'll bring up this passage. And I don't know about, like, I want to hear what your view is. Like, you know, like this is like division, you know, in a very petty way.

It doesn't seem like it's division over important things. It seems like it's just division over just pettiness, you know, he had mentioned all this stuff in the church and fighting. What is your, you know, when people bring up, you know, like different doctrines and doctrinal views, and there is division.

Division is caused, right? I wouldn't say that that is people, I mean, that's just logical, right? You believe something differently. - Yeah. So if I-- - It just applies to that. - Okay, so if I understand your question, you're saying sometimes there are people with different doctrines, like, different beliefs, and different doctrinal points, and they bring it up.

Are you saying, like, are you just asking me, is that divisive? - Well, yeah, I mean, in my case, I'm the one that causes division, let's say. And 'cause I'll bring up, like, certain views, you know, and there'll be division, you know? I've had, like, some negative feedback, right?

- Sure. - That's divisive, you know? - Okay. - Would you say that's a bad kind of division? - Mm-hmm. So-- - Regardless of my-- - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - My temper or my attitude. - Okay. Well, the thing about it is, to conclude, hey, something is divisive, and something is not, obviously, you have to have careful, you have to exercise caution with that.

Because, for example, there are cases when people act out of ignorance. There are sometimes cases in which people just are talking, you know? And there is place for theological discussion, and there is place for differences, with even within the church, okay? Which, later passages is gonna talk about. There's a lot of differences in something like that.

But there is always a question of why we do certain things. What's our goal, what's our aim, right? Sometimes you can be engaged in a theological discussion because you truly are hungry, not simply for truth, but you're truly hungry for the truth of God. You're hungry for God. You want to follow him, so you're asking questions.

Good. That person is very different from saying, I'm right, I know, you don't. Let's fight. Divisive. Does that make sense? The attitude of the heart matters greatly. And so the attitude of the heart, when an apostle Paul sees some people are just eating, you know what, you can eat.

You know what I mean? You can eat. But when the attitude of the heart is, but they don't matter. They're in complete disregard. And not only that, but they're shaming the people who are poor. Like, you eat after us. Okay? That attitude of the heart now all of a sudden makes simple eating all of a sudden incredibly divisive.

Right? So again, I would say we have to exercise great division, but all, I mean, sorry. Whoa. (laughs) Yeah. Someone gave me feedback about my sermon on Sunday too. I kept calling Sarah the non-promise line. Anyway, I do this all the time. We should exercise great discretion. Not division.

Discretion. When we're calling things divisive or not. Okay? We should. 'Cause we couldn't, we can't judge the intention of people's hearts so easily. But at the same time, on the flip side, if we think, oh yeah, sometimes I just don't wanna hang out with these people, you know? I just get annoyed by these guys.

Yeah, I mean, sometimes we have the freedom to choose who we hang out with. Okay? But if you purposefully, intentionally, either because you're bitter you wanna hurt somebody, or either because you're bitter, or either because in your heart you've categorized people, and within the church you exercise that kind of behavior and attitude, I don't know, is that divisive?

That's something for you to examine in your own heart. Right? As we learned today. It's not for me to call out for you, you need to just examine that in your own heart. Okay? Good question. Let's take a moment to pray. Father God, we thank you so much for your grace and your words.

Lord, it really challenges me to look at your grace. That God, ah, just think about this fact that you would perform a miraculous sign that will be told through the ages, seen amongst the nations, and then people will forget. That you would send your son, that he would suffer unjustly, that he would die on the cross, and then we forget.

Thank you God that you're patient with us, and Lord that you have instituted your ordinance that we would remember. Father, help us to not be so naive, so sinful that we would constantly not be aware and to not recognize what we have in the Lord. But help us to be thankful, help us truly to be grateful to the degree to which we will celebrate, to the degree to which we'll have joy.

And that when we come to the communion table, we will gladly just offer up to you our lives. When we come to the communion table, it will be a joy and we will find true fellowship just in knowing the Lord. And I pray, Father God, that the things that we just covered tonight would really challenge our hearts.

Father, I'm challenged to examine myself of hurtful ways that are in me, perhaps by me simply being so closed-minded or so short of sight that I don't see the people around me. I pray, Father God, that you'd grant us just greater grace, and I also pray you'd give us greater sight to exercise the kind of love that Christ did.

Lord, we again wanna thank you for your word. It's in Christ's name, amen.