Robert Bosley delivers a sermon on the Lord's Supper, focusing on 1 Corinthians 11:17-34. He underscores the importance of the Lord's Supper as a primary purpose for church gatherings, alongside worship, prayer, and preaching. Bosley highlights the divisions in the Corinthian church, rooted in cultural practices that prioritized social status, leading to abuses of the Lord's Supper. He explains that the early church observed the Lord's Supper within a larger fellowship meal, which was often mishandled by wealthier members, resulting in neglect of poorer members. Bosley emphasizes that disunity undermines communion with Christ and that the church should be unified, reflecting the oneness of the body of Christ. He cautions against modern practices that diminish the frequency of the Lord's Supper, arguing that regular participation is vital for spiritual growth. Bosley also warns against overreacting to errors within the church, advocating for correction that aligns with biblical instruction rather than avoiding practices altogether. He concludes by urging the congregation to love and care for one another, aligning with the teachings of Christ and the essence of the Lord's Supper.

Good afternoon church. It's a great joy to be with you as always. If you would open up your Bibles to 1st Corinthians chapter 11. 1st Corinthians chapter 11 we're going to be continuing the series on the Lord's Supper. And so now we have looked at the institution passage in one of the Gospels, we looked at 1 Corinthians 10 last time, and now we're getting to really what is the dominant text on the doctrine of the Lord's Supper here in 1st Corinthians 11.

And Trent's message today and mine in surprising ways, I think go hand in hand. And we both face a similar problem, an overabundance of content and a lack of time. So with 1 Corinthians 11, this is going to be at least the first of two, maybe the first of three, depending on how far I get. But we're going to read 1 Corinthians 11, verses 17 to the end of the chapter, but I'm going to be specifically focusing, hopefully, on verses 17 through 26. So let's look at and read verses 17 through the end of the chapter, verse 34.

The apostle Paul writing to Corinth, now in giving these instructions, I do not praise you since you come together not for the better, but for the worse. For first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it. For there must also be factions among you that those who are approved may be recognized among you. Therefore, when you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord's Supper. For in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others, and one is hungry, and another is drunk.

What? Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? 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 do not praise you. For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, Take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same manner, he also took the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood.

This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes. Therefore, whoever eats this bread and drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.

For this reason many are weak and sick among you and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves we would not be judged but when we are judged we are chastened by the Lord that we may not be condemned with the world. Therefore my brethren when you come together to eat wait for one another But if anyone is hungry let him eat at home Let you come together for judgment and the rest I will set an order when I come. Let's pray Father we thank you for this opportunity to be in your word again. We pray that you would open up the scriptures to us, give us hearts and minds ready to receive these things.

And may you be glorified in our time together in Jesus name. Amen. So like I said, I'm going to try and get through verses 17 through 26 and I want to look at this under two headings. First, the abuse of the supper in 17 through 22 and the use of the supper in 23 to 26. So abuse and use of the supper We probably will just get in the abuse section, but we'll see.

But before we get into it, a little bit of background information that I think might be helpful as we come to this, because there are things here that we might not be aware of that might cause us to be confused as we're reading this. When Paul is giving this instruction at this time, remember this is incredibly early on in the church. This is probably less than 20 years after Jesus' resurrection, probably only about 15 years or so. There's not been much of the New Testament written, maybe only five other books, Maybe six. Maybe only one of the Gospels or two have been written.

So this is extraordinarily early on. And there are practices that were done that may not reflect exactly how we do things today. Like we read this and they're taking the Lord's Supper and some are going hungry while others are filled and we look at the piece of bread and the thimble full of wine and like how is anyone getting filled or drunk off of this? Well that's because they did things a little bit differently in the early church and for centuries they would do actually pretty similar to what we do but slightly different. The supper, the actual ordinance, the sacrament of the supper, the Eucharist, was in the context of a larger meal.

They would have a fellowship meal, what they called the Love Feast. Jude refers to this in his epistle when he says that the false teachers are spots at your love feasts. This is what they would call it, the love feasts, where the church would gather together for a time of fellowship and either before, during, or after the feast, they would particularly take the elements of the bread and the wine and observe the ordinance of the Lord's Supper. And so when we get to this, have that in mind. This is a part of a larger feast.

That's why some are able to abuse it so in such extraordinary ways, because it was more than just what we think of as the supper. Now in a later session we'll talk about how exactly should we do it, is it right for us to do it the way we do it, should we do it that way, we'll talk about that later, just assume that for right now. There's also, we have to remember these are not 21st century Americans that Paul is writing to. We read this after centuries of Christian influence and being believers oftentimes ourselves for years and years, but in the influence of a Christian culture, both in America and largely in the West. And we think, well, why wouldn't you wait for one another?

Isn't that obvious? Not to them. The first century Greco-Roman culture was a very class-based society. The rich did not mix with the poor. And that's why it's such a scandal to the unbelievers that you have rich and poor and these different groups of people all coming together to enjoy this feast.

But they're trying to mix their cultural practice with the practice of the church. And that is really what is spurring on the divisions here as exemplified in the supper. Now we know earlier on in the beginning of the letter that there are all sorts of issues in Corinth. This is not a church that is doing everything right until they get to the supper. From out of the gate he's accusing them of division and factionalism.

Some follow Peter, some follow James, and the really spiritual guys over in the corner say, but I follow Jesus. And Paul says you're all doing it wrong. This is not how Christians behave. Because that what your culture says what seems so obvious to you as Romans is not how the Church of Christ is to operate. We are to wait for one another, we are to love one another, we are to come together in unity, not allowing these silly divisions that divide the rest of society, not let these things tear apart the body of Christ.

Because as he said in chapter 10, last time I talked about the supper, we who are many are one because we partake of the one loaf. There's one bread because there's one Christ. And so we, when we take that bread, are one body. These societal divisions have no bearing on this. And so as was talked about a little bit this morning, there are ways that the church can be flexible and adapt and adopt to different cultural practices.

But there are times where the church must draw a hard line and say, no, we cannot do what the culture wants us to do, whatever the culture may be. The culture wants us to compromise on justification by faith alone. We say, no, absolutely not. This is where we stand. This is the gospel.

Without it, we have no hope. And similarly here, the apostle Paul draws the line in the sand on the imagery of the supper. No, you cannot divide when you take the supper. When you eat together, you cannot be shut off into these little groups and cliques and ignore one another. We are to be one body.

And that's why he begins with verse 17, I do not praise you in giving these instructions. He started this chapter saying that he praises them because they are following certain traditions. But here he says, I do not praise you in this. Since you come together not for the better but for the worst. For first of all when you come together as a church I hear there are divisions among you and in part I believe it for there must be factions among you that those who are Approved may be recognized among you Therefore when you come together in one place It's not to eat the Lord's Supper for an eating each one takes his own supper Ahead of others one is hungry another is drunk Do you not have houses to eat and drink in or do you despise the Church of God and shame those who have nothing?

Oftentimes the the rich would mistreat the poor they would and we see that seems to be what is happening here in Corinth, they are, those who are the wealthier members of the church are assuming the privileges that they think Roman society affords them, and they're taking all the food and not leaving any for their brothers and sisters who do not have food. Paul says, shall I praise you in this? I do not, because you're missing the whole point. You're abusing the supper. And so I want us to see a couple of things here.

First I want to see that the supper was one of the main purposes for the church gathering together. One of the primary purposes for the church gathering together was the Lord's Supper. Second, that disunity in the church undermines our communion. And third, I want to look at the nature of Paul's correction, the nature of his admonition. I know they're not alliterated, sorry.

It's kind of a random grab bag. So the supper is the primary purpose. This is not immediately obvious reading the text, but I think it bears out if you follow along with me here. So look at verse 18. First of all, when you come together as a church, there's a lot packed into that that will simply suffice to say, you individually are not the church.

This is the church. The church is the gathering. I mean, it's literally what the word means. Ecclesia, the gathered together. You individually are not the church.

You and your family at home are not the church. You're part of the church, but the church exists when it gathers together. When you come together as the church there are divisions. Then look at verse 20. When you come together in one place it's not to eat the Lord's Supper.

And there's a phrase there in the original language that there's a purpose. The purpose for which they're gathering is not to eat the Lord's Supper. We'll talk about that in just a second. And then look at verse 33, Therefore my brethren, when you come together to eat, There's an emphasis here. The gathering of the church is partly for Celebrating the Lord's Supper is one of the primary reasons the church gathers together Now we think of all the reasons the church gathers for worship for prayer, especially the preaching of the word of God.

Absolutely, yes, amen to all of that. But also one of the primary reasons the church gathers is to partake of the bread and the wine. Because this is what Christ has commanded us to do. It is a means of grace to his people. Chapter 10 is communion with the body and blood of Christ.

It is our fellowship together but it's also a fellowshiping with our risen Lord. It is why we gather together. I go back to verse 20. There is, as I said, an idea of purpose here. Therefore, when you come together in one place it is not to eat the Lord's Supper.

This could be understood a couple different ways. First, it could be that when they come together they're not even thinking about the Supper. When you come together It's not to eat the Lord's Supper. You're not even thinking about it. You're not worried about it In that case you would be abusing the gathering of the church because you're not taking the supper I don't actually think that's what he means I think what he means is that when they come together and they're eating as they clearly are some are being filled some are going hungry Some are getting drunk.

It's crazy but they're coming together and they are eating. Maybe they're even calling at the Lord's Supper, but because they are so misusing and abusing the ordinance, it's like they're not taking it. They're gathering together to eat, but they're doing it in such a way that it's undoing the entire point of the sacrament to where they're not even actually partaking. As verse 21 says, instead they're taking their own supper. They have rejected the Lord's and made it their own.

Because the manner that they're behaving towards one another is so contrary to the point of the ordinance. So when you gather together, you say you're taking the supper, but you're really not. And that's wrong. You should gather together, you should eat together, you should partake of the ordinance. That's one of the main reasons the church exists and why you gather together each Lord's Day, but you're not doing it right.

Now think of what this means. How many churches can't remember the last time they did the Lord's Supper. I mean the church I grew up in as a kid, I don't know when they, I mean granted I was little, but I don't remember it ever being done. How many churches do it once a quarter or once a year? There are some churches that only do it when the month has five Sundays and they'll do it on the fifth Sunday.

There are all sorts of weird traditions that people have and usually the argument you hear is well we want it to be special so we don't do it that often. That's dumb. Can we just agree? That's dumb. That's a really bad argument.

Use that to justify why you don't talk to your wife or why you don't spend time with your children. Well, I don't want them to take it for granted. I want it to be special, so I'm not going to see them for a couple of months. We'll put you under church discipline. No, the the the the regularity doesn't diminish the importance we pray we have preaching every week Because it's important because it's so central The elders are told to preach the word because it's so vital.

Same thing with the supper. Now again, later on we'll have a whole session on the ins and outs of how we do the supper, we'll talk about frequency. I'm going to put my eye cards on and say, well, it should be every week. I'm glad we do it every week. It's a glorious thing.

But what does that say about those who are perfectly content and even happy that they don't do it that often. I don't wanna make a judgment on anyone's soul, but it's hard for me to see how you can think that that's good, that you're not going to have communion with Christ, except maybe once a year when you gather with the church. It's heartbreaking really, because you're cutting yourself off from a means of grace. God has laid a feast before you, treasure greater than you can imagine. You say, not right now, maybe a few months from now.

It's sad, it really is. Now at the same time, the importance of the supper does not usurp or take the place of other elements. And this was the problem with the medieval church and what the reformers reacted against. In certain ways, the supper was so elevated through the theology of transubstantiation and the mass that the service was all about the mass, the Eucharist. There was all sorts of confusion.

The Laity would only take it maybe once a year, that's all it was required, but that was the main purpose. They would still do the, they would still present the elements and go through all the rituals and of course I'm not approving of what the medieval church did, just saying how they did it. They would go through all that and the priests would take, or maybe those who felt that they were very spiritual, they could come and take. But it was, it was not, it was seen on one hand as being so vital that this is the main thing and the preaching of the word was often not done at all or it was limited to maybe 10 or 15 minutes of just moral instruction. And the reformers came along and said, no, you're totally off here.

The supper's more important than you've made it. It needs to be every week. Calvin fought hard for that in Geneva. He lost that fight. But at the same time, it's not so important in other ways because it is not the only reason the church gathers.

It's a reason, it's a vitally important reason, but it's not the only reason the church gathers. The church gathers for singing, for prayer, and for preaching, as well as the sacraments. All these things are what God has commanded us to do, And this is why the regular principle of worship is so vital. We do what God has said we are to do. We are not free to make it up on our own.

We do what God has said. So The supper is a primary reason that the church gathers. Now, their disunity in the church undermines the Eucharist. Now obviously, I don't mean that a Christian can lose their salvation if there's disharmony in the church. You getting mad at your brother in the Lord does not mean that you've both lost your salvation or something like that That's not what I'm saying.

But what I am saying is that Our communion with Christ is an ongoing reality that we ought to experience Continually on an ongoing basis. It's not just at our justification, as we heard, we are forgiven of our sins, but we're also to be sanctified. In the same way, we come into communion with Christ at the moment we believe, but we are to continue having that fellowship with the Lord. If you're at odds with your brother, that can hamper your communion with Christ. I believe that's what he means when he says when you come together, it's not to eat the Lord's Supper.

You think you may be eating it, you say you're eating it, but you're really not. The fighting and division in the church is a hindrance, because you are to be one body. Matthew Henry summarized it really well, commenting on this passage. He says, it was coming to the Lord's table and not coming. They might as well have stayed away.

Thus to eat the outward elements was not to eat Christ's body. Note there is a careless and irregular eating of the Lord's supper which is as none at all. You do it in such a careless way that it's as if you're not doing it at all. It will turn to no account, in other words, has no profit except to increase guilt, Which we'll see more of at the end of the chapter Such an eating was that of the Corinthians their practices were a direct contradiction to the purposes of this sacred institution Because the supper is a proclamation of Christ, but it is also a proclamation of our fellowship together. One bread, one cup, we are one body.

That is what is to be pictured in the supper. And so look at the nature of their division. In verse 21, in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others. One is hungry, another is drunk. I lost my place.

What do you not have houses to eat in? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? Think about what he says there. Taking the supper in an unworthy way is to shame God's church. To despise the church of God and to shame your brother.

To despise the church. You're despising the bride of Christ. Because again, this was in the context of a larger meal, and some were being selfish and only focused on their own wants and needs and gave no thought to their brothers and so the divisions that were already there were just exacerbated in the supper made even worse in the ordinance that should unify them more than anything. And so instead of honoring Christ and worshiping Christ and partaking of Christ, they're despising His church. What a horrible, horrible thing to do to Christ's bride.

To mistreat the body of Christ in such a way that this ordinance that should unify you're using to further divide you. So when they gathered together they were not, they were eating, some of them were eating too much. There was plenty of eating going on, but they weren't taking the body and blood. Because they were so filled with division and a lack of love for one another. May that never be the case for us here.

And in fact, when we came, actually today is close enough, because what, today's the 11th. The ninth, I believe, was 10 years since my wife and I first came to this church. And shortly after that, now everyone, especially those who were here know that that was not probably the best time to visit. Shortly after that, we went back to Maryland, Elizabeth was born, and then we came back and we visited. And one of the Sundays here, we had been coming a little bit, one of the Sundays here, I believe it was one of the deacons, I didn't know people very well, but one of the deacons stood up and said, today we are not going to take the Lord's Supper.

There will be no preaching. We will simply spend our time in prayer because of the divisions in this church. And that blew my mind. I had never seen such a thing before. Now, obviously the divisions and the pain that came from that, not wanting to minimize that at all, It's horrible and hate that it happened.

But that mindset that there is such division if we take the supper we will be drinking judgment to ourselves. That was refreshing to see. That's one reason why we stayed. Because that is the seriousness with which this must be handled. So may that never happen again in this church.

If you have something against brother go to them don't harbor it be a peace and love one another In my last couple of minutes here, I told you I wasn't going to make it, last couple of minutes, the nature of Paul's admonition, his correction. So this church in Corinth had issues, obviously, we know that. There are other issues that Christians can fall into. And I want to see Paul's example here of how we can avoid a common problem that Christians have and that is being guilty of overreacting to error What I mean overreacting to error shouldn't we be concerned with error absolutely, but you can react to an error such that your reaction is another error. We have a really bad tendency to drive out of one ditch right into the other and Paul doesn't do that.

We should learn this from him. Now, you may say, well, what's an example of this? I can't think of any time this has happened. There are many to consider, but here's an obvious one from church history. Obviously, the New Testament is very clear about teachings on chastity and modesty.

We are told, as we saw in the message this morning, avoid sexual immorality. Obvious good, it's what God commands us. But for a very long time the medieval church overreacted against the error of fornication by driving into the ditch of abandoning marriage and elevating celibacy as the highest good. As a superior lifestyle, As Scott has pointed out, at the time of the Reformation, something like a quarter of Europe had taken vows of celibacy because that was seen as more spiritual. When in reality, God intends families And marriage is a good thing.

The apostle Paul doesn't come to the Corinthians recognizing their error and say, you're doing it wrong, so stop doing it altogether. That's not his attitude. He doesn't come in with a sledgehammer and just break down the whole thing He doesn't tear down the whole building because they screwed up one part Rather he instructs them to do it correctly Which is what we see he repeats the institution and then gives further instruction from verses 27 to the end of the chapter He doesn't respond to their abuse of the thing The Lord's Supper here by outlawing its rightful use That is a habit that I've seen far too many Christians, far too many churches, fall into. People abuse a thing, let's not do the thing altogether. That's not the example we're given here.

Rather, he puts his finger on the primary issue. It's not how they're eating per se, it's not even that some are drinking too much and getting drunk in the supper. It's their selfishness, their arrogance, and their lovelessness. That's the issue. They're not loving one another.

Which is honestly really incredible. If we came here and obviously we're in a different time frame, but somebody's coming into the church and they've obviously been drinking too much, that's going to be corrected. But Paul here, he's correcting that. Don't get me wrong, he's not giving a pass to drunkenness. But he's pointing out there's a more fundamental problem here.

You're abusing the supper. The ways you're abusing it are the symptom. What's the real disease? It's that you are not loving one another as Christ has loved you. That's the problem.

And how do we know that? Because he says to those who are eating and getting their fill and leaving others hungry and those who are drinking too much, those who are drinking to excess, he doesn't say, don't you know that's a sin, stop getting drunk, he says, don't you have a house to drink in? It's almost as if he's saying, if you're going to do it, do it at home so we don't have to see it and deal with you. Again, he's not giving approval to drinking to excess. That's not the point.

Paul's very clear on that elsewhere. But it's because that's a secondary issue. The main problem here is not overindulging in alcohol. And so he doesn't outlaw alcohol. The primary problem is they are not loving one another.

They're not loving the Lord. That's the heart of the issue because as we have heard the phrase, the heart of the issue is the issue of the heart. He corrects what would be the greater issue and knows that the lesser ones will take care of themselves. So there are many applications we can make from this, but I will Suffice to say, love one another. When we come together as the church, love one another, care for one another.

When we go through the food line, make sure that there's enough left for your brothers, something as simple as that. Care for one another. See how you can be a blessing to each other. The world does not revolve around you. No matter who you are, it revolves around Christ.

So we come to his table to do it his way. It is the Lord's Supper, not ours. So I want to end with a quote from the book of Proverbs. Proverbs chapter 9, Lady Wisdom. We know what Paul says that all wisdom is fulfilled in Christ.

So think of this as Christ speaking. Whoever is simple, let him turn in here. She, Lady Wisdom is, well, a lady, she says to him who lacks judgment, come eat my bread and Drink the wine I've mixed. Leave your folly behind and you will live. Walk in the way of understanding.

Let's pray.