Normally when I minister the first question I ask is “How is the blessed of the Lord?” I’m not going to do that today. I am going to make a declaration. You are the blessed of the Lord. You are the son and the daughter of God Almighty. Everything in heaven is available to you. You are healed. Your needs are met completely. There are no question marks in your life when it comes to your Father’s view of you.
I grew up Baptist, Missionary Baptist. Whenever we would have communion that was going to be the longest service of the day, week, month, year! It was going to be long! (Laughter) As a child – 12, 13 – I was not looking forward to that service at all because I knew we would be there all day. Guess what? It’s not happening today! (Laughter)
When we would take communion, if you were not born again, if you had not accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you could not take communion. Many of the children would have to sit and watch as their parents took communion. We had communion on the first Sunday of the month. The pastor would pray and the deacons would get the crackers and break them up into smaller pieces. They would have their backs to you but you could hear the crunching sound.
The pastor would then ask us to stand up and he would read what we’re getting ready to read in First Corinthians 11. He would stop after reading a particular verse. After he would read that verse, 20 to 30 percent of the people would not take communion. We’re going to begin reading in verse 24 and then stop at that verse.
(24) And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.
(25) After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.
(26) For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come.
(27) Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
Every Sunday that we had communion, this word “unworthily” caused a lot of people not to take communion. But they didn’t take communion for the reason the word “unworthily” means. When our pastor would talk about it, he would talk about the sins we’d committed and if we had not gone to the Lord and repented, we could not take communion.
It was interesting to see the people who would not take communion. Now that I think about it, we even had deacons who didn’t take communion. What are you telling me? You are telling me that you have people who are serving in the position of deacon, a leadership position in the church, who have sin in their lives and they don’t take communion because they had not repented of the sin in their lives and yet they were up front crunching the crackers and pouring the “wine”.
So when I was growing up eating and drinking unworthily meant you had sin in your life that you had not confessed or repented of.
(28) But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.
(29) For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.
(30) For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.
Now go back to verse 24. Jesus says “Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.” The word “remembrance” means “memorial”. Jesus is saying “Whenever you eat the bread and drink the cup, I want you to think about what I have done for you.”
For example, 2 Corinthians 8:9 – “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.” What Jesus did for us was He gave us His riches and took our poverty. It was an exchange. Same thing when we read in First Peter “by his stripes we were healed.” He took the stripes for us so that our bodies could be healed.
I know that a lot of people use the word “substitution” for what Jesus did but “exchange” appeals to me. My wife loves crisp dollar bills, preferably in denominations $50 and higher. (Laughter) Whenever I get a crisp 5 dollar bill for example, I’ll take the money home and you should see the smile on my wife’s face. And I tell her she can have the money if she’ll replace it. So we exchange 5 dollar bills. She gives me her less than crispy 5 dollar bill for my crispy 5 dollar bill. In a way that’s what Jesus did for us. He took our “less than crispy” life and gave us His “crispy” life.
As I was thinking about the word “memorial”, we have memorials that remind us our history. The Lincoln Memorial is one of them. When I think about the Lincoln Memorial, I think about what he did to try to unify the country during one of the most horrific times in our country – during the time of slavery when the South went to war against the North. That’s what his memorial means to me.
A few years ago our country built a memorial to Dr. Martin Luther King. The similarities between what Dr. King did and what President Lincoln did, at least for me, are obvious. Dr. King fought for the unification between blacks and whites. These are two natural memorials.
What we often fail to see is what Jesus did to unify the Body of Christ. And we’re going to see that this morning. We’re going to see several records in First Corinthians and Deuteronomy.
Look again at verse 27: “Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.” Do you understand what this is saying about being unworthy? Unless you do something to make yourself not worthy, you are worthy. Jesus has made us worthy and yet we are doing something that makes us unworthy.
And that’s the question we’re going to answer this morning – “What makes us unworthy?”
Where is the message about communion found? In First Corinthians. The church at Corinth was messed up. Paul is having to correct them and give them instructions again about communion.
Now let’s go back to verse 18. “For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it.” The word “divisions” means “schisms”. For example, whatever Bro. Don says, Barry is going to say something different. Whatever Bro. Don likes, Barry is not going to like. Now the schism we’re going to talk about has to do with doctrine.
Hold your finger here in chapter 11 and go to chapter one. We’ll be back in chapter 11 eventually.
In chapter one, look at verse 10. Paul writes “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.”
For us today one division is that some teach that even though we are born again we still have a sin nature. Paul is talking about that. There are some in the church today who believe that if you don’t tithe God can’t bless you. Paul is talking about that. He’s talking about doctrine that is not in agreement with scripture.
We’re going to read verse 11 and this verse essentially says “You failed”. “For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.”
Verses 12 and 13: “Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?” The answer is “No”.
Peter said this so he’s right. No Paul is right. No to both of you. Apollos is the man! He’s right! And then there’s one person who says all of them are wrong because I know what Christ said. There’s division among them.
I know we’re not in chapter 11 yet but what do you think is one of the issues related to communion? Strife and division.
Look in chapter 3.
(1) And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual (Why? Because you are not speaking the same thing and there are divisions among you.), but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
(2) I have fed you with milk, and not with meat (Why? Because there are divisions among you and you are not speaking the same thing.): for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
(3) For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? (In other words, you are being ruled by the flesh, by your emotions.)
(4) For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?
(5) Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?
(6) I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. (There is a principle here that we need to see: We are not responsible for the results. That’s God’s job. Our jobs are to plant and water. Do you see this?)
(7) So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.
(8) Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one (Why are they one? They have the same doctrine. They have the same mind. They are not divided.): and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.
If you are a “planter” and your doctrine is right, then you’ll get a reward. If you’re planting a doctrine that disagrees with the Bible, there is no reward ladies and gentlemen.
Let’s go to chapter 4.
(18) Now some are puffed up (Pride. So, we’ve dealt with strife and division and now we’re dealing with pride.), as though I would not come to you.
(19) But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will, and will know, not the speech of them which are puffed up, but the power.
Look at chapter 5.
(1) It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife.
We’re talking about Christians. Say it with me: Christians. We’re talking about men and women who have been washed in the blood of Jesus. Say it with me: washed in the blood of Christ doing things that even unbelievers are not doing.)
(2) And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.
They don’t see a problem with what is happening. Example: Church, there are some of you, maybe not here, who don’t have a problem with same sex marriage. You’re puffed up. There are some of you who think it’s okay that Barry can do to the Ladies room downstairs and use it. You’re puffed up.
And what makes it worse? Those of us who know better don’t say anything because we don’t want to hurt your feelings. We don’t want you to be mad us. When we do this ladies and gentlemen, we hate that person. The best thing you can do is to love the person enough to say “You’re wrong”. Oh. They’re not going to be happy when you say that but who do you want to make happy? The person who is in the sin or your Heavenly Father? No brainer.
(3) For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed,
(4) In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
(5) To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
(6) Your glorying is not good. (You living in comprise is not good.) Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
(7) Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:
One more. Chapter 6.
(1) Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints?
(2) Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
(3) Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?
(4) If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church.
(5) I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren?
(6) But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers.
(7) Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? (I don’t want to. If I take this wrong I don’t get my $500 back. We want to right the wrong. We want to be God.) why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?
(8) Nay, ye do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren.
We have just read about Christians suing Christians and Paul is asking us “Why are you suing each other and going before the law – men and women who don’t know how God operates – to determine whether or not you get your way?
Jesus said “Take and eat. This is my body broken for you. Why is my body broken for you? So that you can be whole.”
We see in the passages that we just read that Paul talks about strife, pride and division five times before we get to chapter 11. If Paul is talking about strife, pride and division before we get to chapter 11 and chapter 11 is talking about communion, do you think that maybe, perhaps, it’s possible that strife, pride and division has something to do with communion?
Let’s go back to Deuteronomy 25.
(1) If there be a controversy between men, and they come unto judgment, that the judges may judge them; then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked.
(2) And it shall be, if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down, and to be beaten before his face, according to his fault, by a certain number.
(3) Forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed: lest, if he should exceed, and beat him above these with many stripes, then thy brother should seem vile unto thee.
So the person who caused the controversy, the person who caused the “, the person who caused the “division”, was beaten according to the Law with 40 stripes. And we know from reading in the epistles that it was 40 stripes save one because the person didn’t want to miscount and then be beaten himself. Once the man was beaten, the price had been paid.
Turn to Isaiah 53.
(3) He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
(4) Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
(5) But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
Jesus took our chastisement, our punishment. The image this is creating is of a person in Deuteronomy who was stripped bear, bound to a wooden slap or stone with clamps and then beaten until his back was filled with open wounds and bleeding. He took the stripes for Barry. The stripes broke his body. And Jesus’ body was broken so that there would be no broken between us.
Communion is about us ladies and gentlemen. Paul says here in First Corinthians 11 that the people were taking communion as if there were no strife or division in their midst. Strife and division arise out of unforgiving hearts. And Paul tells them that because this is happening they are the ones who are unworthy.
Think about this ladies and gentlemen. If you are living a life in unforgiveness, if you are living a life with strife against your brothers and your sisters, or anyone, even the person who is lost, then you are unworthy to take communion. If you take communion and living a life of unforgiveness you are drinking judgment to yourself because you’re saying “I have already judged but I’m okay to take communion even though my life is out of bounds.”
Now look at verse 28 of First Corinthians 11 again.
(28) But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.
(29) For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. (Not recognizing that whatever strife or division is between you has already been satisfied by Jesus.)
There are so many of us in the Body of Christ that the blood of Jesus is not enough. We want a pound of flesh too because we have to be satisfied. We have to agree that everything’s okay now. And the only way that it’s going to be okay is that our emotions have been satiated. My emotions have to be okay with it.
Do you believe that when Jesus was being beaten and then put on the cross that his emotions were okay with all of that? No it wasn’t. But Jesus said not my will be done but thy will be done. “My emotions Father are screaming at me to call down 72,000 angels! But I am not going to yield to my emotions. I am going to yield to you Father.”
(30) For this cause (For what cause? Because of strife. Because of division. Because of living in pride. All of these can be summarized with one word: unforgiveness.) For this cause – unforgiveness – many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep [are dead].
Did you ever imagine that unforgiveness can keep you sick? Did you ever imagine that unforgiveness can keep you weak? And did you ever imagine that unforgiveness can kill you? Unforgiveness! I’m not talking about a knife. I’m not talking about a bullet. I’m not talking about someone getting in a car and running you over. I’m talking about unforgiveness.
And this is where we’re closing. I’m talking about something that you started. No one can start unforgiveness for you ladies and gentlemen. That’s on you. You can’t blame anyone for that. And the Bible says that if you’re living in unforgiveness and you come to the communion table, you should think long and hard before you decide to take communion.
Now what I am not saying, ladies and gentlemen, that if you have unforgiveness against a person right now that you can’t take communion. What I am saying to you is that if you have unforgiveness against someone right now, make it right quickly. Say
“Father I am so sorry. I did not know what it meant for me to walk around with unforgiveness against that person. Please forgive me. I am sorry. I don’t want to be weak. I don’t want to be sickly. I don’t want to die young. I want to live my life to the fullest. So please Father, forgive me.”
And guess what? If you really mean that you are forgiven ladies and gentlemen.
Unforgiveness. Unforgiveness.
When Jesus died for us we didn’t have anything to offer. We had nothing. Let this be the last day of your life that you carry unforgiveness against someone. Let it be the last day.
So before we take communion, I want you to close your eyes and do a self-examination. And if your self-examination says you need to repent, do it and then the communion table with be life and health for you.
