The Disgrace of Divided Gatherings

Would God’s people once again
turn please this morning back to 1st Corinthians 11. You might
have thought 1st Corinthians 11 was over, right? In the past
few weeks we have discovered that beginning in chapter 11
verse 2 all the way down through 1440 Paul is addressing a number
of issues that were impacting the corporate worship service
in the Corinthian church. That is Paul’s focus here in
this lengthy section. The issue of headship and submission
and the matter about head coverings was only the beginning. But having
completed his discussion of those things, head coverings, headship,
submission. Paul transitions very abruptly
to another major issue impacting the Corinthians’ corporate worship. This trouble was specifically
impacting their celebration of the Lord’s table, if you can
imagine. And that should sound shocking to your ears. Even the
solemn celebration of communion wasn’t exempt from the effects
of disunity there in Corinth. In fact, it was the focal point.
In a sense, that shouldn’t surprise us. After all, the Corinthian
church abounded with problems, not the least of which was disunity.
There were divisions, as we saw at the outset of this letter,
caused by pride, where they were following particular leaders. There was insubordination. There
was a failure to deal with blatant sexual sin. There were Christian
versus Christian lawsuits. There was moral scandal. There
was confusion about marriage. There was the abuse of Christian
liberty, and there was grumbling. Those are just a few of the problems
present. And so when Paul here in the
latter half of chapter 11 addresses a new issue, we’re not surprised. The celebration of the Lord’s
table, communion, was also being tainted and even ruined by the
misbehavior of those in attendance. This is every bit as disturbing
as it first sounds. It should be disturbing to us.
It surely was to Paul. The celebration of the Lord’s
table was one of only two perpetual ordinances in Christ’s church,
baptism being the other. The observance of these perpetual
ordinances should always and ever be a solemn and joyful occasion
in the life of any true church. Jesus himself instituted the
celebration of communion the very night in which he was betrayed.
Couldn’t get any more solemn than that. While neither of these
ordinances has any saving merit, both are extolled by the Lord
Himself as special and significant, and they are intended to be treated
as such. So, for the Corinthian church,
or any church for that matter, to besmirch one of these ordinances
with petty distractions, was exceedingly distressing. It certainly
was for Paul. I will tell you what I liken
this passage to. There are two solemn occasions
that were both interrupted by the disciples’ awful pettiness. The first one is in Matthew 17. I’m not going to spend much time
there at all. You need not turn. But in Matthew
17, where we find Matthew’s account of the transfiguration of our
Lord, it’s a singularly profound moment that Peter and James and
John were all privileged to witness. And yet only a short time later, The opening of the very next
chapter, Matthew 18, says that the disciples began to wonder
out loud, mind you, who then is the greatest in the kingdom
of heaven? They weren’t asking about the
members of the Godhead, the Trinity. They weren’t even asking about
the angels. They were inquiring about their
own standing. How petty. could it get? And this low moment, as I said,
occurred on of all occasions just after the episode of Christ’s
transfiguration. But that wasn’t the only time
that this happened. This time, The other time that
I would point to followed after arguably one of the most special
and memorable moments in Christ’s entire ministry. It’s the Last
Supper. There he is gathered in the upper
room with his closest friends, enjoying one last meal, the very
place where he instituted the Lord’s Supper, And the context
shows that during that supper, Jesus rose and went around the
room, man to man, washing his disciples’ feet. That’s an amazing thought, that
the creator of the universe who took on human flesh, that humbling
was not enough, that he had to go around as a sign to his disciples,
and washed their feet. Listen to how John records it.
So when he had washed their feet and taken his garments and reclined
at the table again, he said to them, do you know what I’ve done
to you? You call me teacher and Lord, and you are right, for
so I am. If I then, the Lord and the teacher,
washed your feet, you ought also to wash one another’s feet. For I gave you an example that
you also should do as I did to you. Truly, truly, I say to you,
a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent
greater than the one who sent him. What a powerful, memorable,
life-changing moment this must have been. It should have been. They all should have marched
out of that room, Judas included, and started serving one another
like never before and never stop. But the lesson was almost immediately
forgotten. Luke records that as they prepared
to leave the upper room, a dispute arose among them as to which
one of them was to be regarded as the greatest. a shocking display
of pettiness in the context of the most solemn occasion. Well, this behavior by the Corinthians
on the occasion of the Lord’s table was just as shocking. Their
peevish behavior was putting themselves and their own interests
not only above their fellow believers’ interests, but even above the
Lord’s interests. The Lord’s table was supposed
to be among the sweetest times of Christian fellowship. In Corinth,
it was just one more occasion to bicker and to advance one’s
own personal agenda. We come to the latter half of
1 Corinthians 11, verses 17 through 34. We’ll take it in its entirety
this morning. First Corinthians chapter 11,
beginning in verse 17. 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. But there must also be factions
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, and 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 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 this 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 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 sleep. 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 will arrange when I come. Perhaps just a note before we
jump headlong into this great passage, and specifically some
clarification on my title for this series. As you can see,
my title is A Confrontation of Divided Gatherings, or The Disgrace
of Divided Gatherings. That’s an intentional oxymoron
there, divided gatherings. That’s what was happening in
Corinth. They were gathering or assembling to really showcase
their division. Most of that by now is understandable. Paul saw, however, yet another
problem in the Corinthian worship, and he was prompted to confront
it. But if I may, I’d like to draw your attention to that word
gatherings for just a moment. I’ve rendered that in the plural,
gatherings, plural, not just gathering, singular, for two
reasons. In the first place, this was
not just a one-time problem that Paul had observed in the Corinthian
church. The problem was now habitual.
It was an ongoing regular problem, a regular feature of the Corinthian
gatherings. How sad is that? But the problem
was not an isolated problem. It was not limited only to the
Corinthians. No, indeed, any church gathered
with a divided spirit would be guilty of troubling the Lord’s
table. And in that sense, this passage
is a caution to all churches, including our own. When Paul
confronts the divided gatherings of the Corinthians, he likewise
confronts our own. If I may, let me give you an
overall outline of the remainder of this chapter. Paul, as you
know, is confronting the Corinthians’ behavior during worship, divided
gatherings. And in the verses we’ll consider
this morning, he issues what I would title a rebuke of divided
gatherings. there in verses 17 through 19.
In verses 20 through 22, we’ll see the evidence of divided gatherings,
and Paul lays it all out on the table. In verses 23 through 26,
verses that are sweetly familiar to us, we’ll see the contrast
of divided gatherings, things as they were supposed to be in
Christ-centered worship. The ordinance of the Lord’s table
as intended. And then in verses 27 to 32,
Paul will give us the remedy for divided gatherings. In short,
a prayerful self-examination before the Lord. And then finally
in this chapter, Paul will take us down in verses 33 and 34 to
the end of divided gatherings. Doesn’t that have a beautiful
sound to it? Paul is going to bring us around and put an end
to this division. in our gatherings. But let’s
start the first this morning by considering verses 17 through
19, Paul’s rebuke of divided gatherings. Look at verse 17
if you would. But in giving you, in giving
this instruction, I do not praise you because you come together
not for the better, but for the worse. Paul uses here a direct
and a very interesting means of snapping the Corinthians to
attention. He issues here an intentional
contrast, and it’s a dramatic one. He had praised them in verse
two, remember? Glance back at verse two of this
chapter if you would, where the Corinthians probably almost immediately
settled back, crossed their arms, and took on an attitude of smugness. Now I praise you, Paul says,
because you remember me in everything and hold firmly to the traditions
just as I delivered them to you. He puts them in the palm of his
hand. I praise you, Paul says. At the
beginning of the chapter, he does praise them, but here in
verse 17, his attitude is very different. Here he clarifies
that in giving this instruction, I do not praise you. On this
subject, his opinion of them is quite different. They loved
Paul. They remembered Paul in practical
ways, prayer and financial support, obedience, affliction. Those things were indeed commendable,
and he does commend them. And he seems to play upon the
natural tendency to smugness. You get a compliment, what’s
gonna happen? your head begins to swell. And as soon as they
heard that compliment that Paul uttered in verse two, that they
were praiseworthy, they might well have begun to swell with
pride. But here Paul does an about face.
He has them right where he wants them. And he issues an understatement. Not only will he not praise them,
even in that statement, he’s already chiding them. Not only
will he not praise them, he now will formally rebuke them. The
entire church. The Corinthian church did have
some commendatory qualities, but the way that they behaved
at the Lord’s table was not one of them. It was shameful. The worship service in Corinth
was a disgraceful scene in its display of selfishness and irreverence. Look at verse 17 again, in giving
you this instruction, I do not praise you because you come together,
not for the better, but for the worse. Before I make a comment
here, I want to back away from the minutia of verse 17. I want
you to observe something here of the entire passage from 17
to 34. Note here in verse 17, those
two little words, come together. Doesn’t that sound beautiful? And the pronoun is embedded there
in the verb, second person plural, you come together. Even more
beautiful. Well, that phrase is used repeatedly
throughout this section. The coming together of the Corinthians
was Paul’s focus here. We see it again in verse 20.
Pardon me, we see it in, pardon me. We see it again in verse
18, when you come together. We see it again in verse 20,
although translated slightly differently, at least in the
NAS, when you meet together. We see it again in verse 33,
when you come together to eat, which honestly sounds like a
dinner party or meeting someone at a restaurant. It is not. But
we see it one last time in verse 34 as a warning that you will
not come together for judgment. And in all of those references,
Paul has one and the same meaning in this coming together, this
meeting, He tells us explicitly what that is in verse 18. Would
you just glance there, please? This coming together is not pointing
to just any gathering, but when you come together as a church. When you are assembled in the
name of the Lord, in other words, when believers are gathered for
corporate worship. Oh, but listen to this mournful
indictment in the remainder of verse 17. In giving this instruction,
I do not praise you because you come together, not for the better,
but for the worse. Did you hear that? Do you feel
the weight of that indictment? Paul’s words are extremely strong
here because what should have been to this church a divine
blessing was a stumbling block for them all. Their gathering,
their coming together as a body of believers for worship was
not for the better but for the worse. Do you realize what Paul
says there? Effectively he says that your
meeting together does more harm than good. Under the circumstances, it would
be better if they would just stay home, not meet together
at all. Let’s put things in context here.
The gathered church was and is supposed to be a superlative
earthly blessing to believers. The greatest thing that we can
do here on earth is to gather in corporate worship. That’s
why whenever anybody asks me if I’m a strict Sabbatarian,
I’ll tell you, the bare minimum on the Lord’s day is corporate
worship, the bare minimum. The gathered church was and is
supposed to be the highlight of any believer’s week, where
believers can have a foretaste of heaven in worshiping together.
Do you know this is what you’ll do throughout all eternity? We have the opportunity to spend
time together in prayer together before the very throne of grace.
Here we can receive instruction from God’s word and discipleship
in the reading of God’s word and sermons preached in Sunday
school. Here in corporate worship, we
celebrate Christ’s ordinances, the baptism and the Lord’s supper. Here we have the opportunity,
the privilege, may I remind you, of exercising one’s God-given
gifts in serving the Lord Jesus by serving His body, the church. Here in the gathered church,
we fellowship together with Christian brothers and sisters, encouraging
one another, enjoying one another. All of that is what it should
have been. Gathering for worship with God’s
people, corporate worship, was supposed to be the absolute highlight
of the week. But for the Corinthians, instead
of coming together as a church for the better, its worship,
its people, its ordinances, its fellowship, instead of gathering
to such a blessing, it was becoming a curse. The very thing that
was supposed to be a source of spiritual nourishment and blessing
had itself become a stumbling block. It was doing more spiritual
harm than good. Not only was their gathering
together not edifying, not building one another up, it was destructive. It was tearing believers down
and tearing them apart. It was the complete opposite
of what it was supposed to be. So what was it that was so dreadful
in the Corinthian worship service that would leave Paul with such
a dismal opinion of the church that he planted? Why was their
meeting together so destructive? He explains in verse 18. 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. Paul reiterates here in verse
18 that Well, this may not have been a chronic problem in all
occasions throughout the week. Of all the occasions where this
disruption, this disruptive behavior could take place, it occurred
when they came together as a church. And here, we need to zero in
on this word that’s translated church for just a moment. To
begin with, the word never, refers to a building, a church in that
sense. At the time, Christians would
never have referred to any building as the church. The church was
the totality of believing people in that community. So in the
New Testament, the church always refers to the gathered people
of God, to the purposed assembly of believers for worship. And
truly, in that sense, the church isn’t the church until it’s gathered. So this wasn’t just any meeting,
a community gathering, so to speak, but it was a meeting officially
set apart for God’s people unto God himself. It was the corporate
gathering of God’s people to worship. And it should have been
a holy and a solemn occasion. God and God alone should have
been the focus. He wasn’t. Paul had gotten this
report, a terrible and surely a discouraging report about his
Corinthian believers. It had come to him perhaps like
so much of the news he had received about the Corinthian church from
Chloe’s people. At the outset of this epistle,
Paul identifies Chloe’s people, a likely delegation from Corinth,
who came to Paul in Ephesus to apprise him of some of the things
that were going on back home. Tattletales? I don’t know. God
knows. But I want you to notice how
graciously Paul deals with this report. I hear that divisions exist among
you, and in part, I believe it.” He couldn’t receive every negative
thing related to him about the Corinthians. He knew they weren’t
perfect. He knew that it was much more
than possible that there were some things that needed to be
addressed, but not everything. He had received a very detailed
report And he acknowledged that part of it could be true. In
other words, Paul thought the best of them. He believed that
surely things could not possibly be as bad as they had been reported. Boy, do we need to ponder that
lesson. We shouldn’t receive every report that comes to us
about a brother. We should think the best of them.
Part of it may be true, we know, and if it involves us, we should
deal with that part of it, but we shouldn’t throw people away
just because of the report of an individual. Nevertheless,
there were, after all, divisions in Corinth. Paul has acknowledged
that from the very beginning of this letter. He knew there
was division. And so to hear about new examples
of division would not have been surprising to Paul. In part,
he says, I believe it. The word in the Greek there for
division is schisma. You heard it. It’s the word from
which, of course, we get our word schism. We first came across
this word in that verse that was for me so life and ministry
altering. First Corinthians 1 10. Remember
that? I exhort you brethren in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ
that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but
that you be made complete and in the same mind and in the same
judgment. Remember that verse? Paul would
have no divisions in his churches. Disunity and strife for Paul
were among the worst things that could happen in a church. These
schisms were not attacks from outside the church. They were
strife and dissension within it. Schisms. We might well call them cliques.
There in the opening chapters, remember, there were parties
forming around personalities. But Paul says here in chapter
11 that there was an even uglier feature of their division. Selfishness. We’ll come to that
in time, but it’s enough here to note that division existed
at all, and that it was made manifest on of all occasions. during the Lord’s table, and
that these cliques, this is so sad, these cliques were established
along socioeconomic lines. In other words, the wealthier
members were showing up the poorer members, and this in the midst
of their worship. The rich were alienated the poor,
And I want you just for a moment to think back to the bold relief
that stands behind this report. In the founding of the church
in Jerusalem, everything was new and exciting, remember? People were being saved by the
thousands, extraordinary signs and miracles were taking place.
The word of God was being powerfully preached. And there was another
remarkable feature, oneness, unity. Listen to Acts chapter
two, beginning in verse 41. So then those who had received
his word were baptized, and that day there were added about 3,000
souls. They were continually devoting
themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking
of bread and to prayer. Everyone kept feeling a sense
of awe, and many wonders and signs were taking place through
the apostles. And all those who had believed
were together and had all things in common. And they began selling
their property and possessions, and were sharing them with all
as anyone might have need. Day by day, continuing with one
mind in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they
were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of
heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And
the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were
being saved. What a contrast. What a contrast
to read about this very different spirit that was now manifest
in the Corinthian church. Selfishness leading to division. But Paul closes this brief section
with a rather alarming piece of news. Because he proceeds abruptly
to suggest that these divisions have a divine purpose. He provides
us here the reason that he did believe some of the report that
he had heard. God had a reason for these divisions.
To follow Paul’s string of thought, he says, in part I believe that
division exists among you, look at verse 19, for there must also
be factions among you so that those who are approved may become
evident among you. Even cliques. can be used by
God because they reveal by separation the false believers from the
true. This is a matter found again
and again in Scripture. God’s sovereignty and man’s sin. Jesus himself said that it would
happen. Luke 17 1, he said to his disciples,
it is inevitable that stumbling blocks should come. We can count
on it. We can expect it. But woe to
him through whom they come. We will have such stumbling blocks
in life. They are inevitable. But the
individual responsible for them will indeed be judged. In the Old Testament scriptures,
there is an account of King Nebuchadnezzar whom God used like an ax. to
thwart and punish Israel. And when God was done with him,
he judged him. He judged him because he was
available for this wicked deed. Keeping aloof from division is
a sign of true spirituality. But immersing oneself in the
practice of division and strife and factiousness, party spirit,
is a sure sign of bad motives. But Paul uses an even more troubling
word here for this malady. Having reintroduced the word
schisms in his epistle into this very discussion, He attributes
these divisions to another wretched element. The word he uses is
hiresis. And if you heard it there, you
get an A in Greek for the morning. It’s the word that we often translate
heresy. It’s translated here as factions.
Because here, at least, it isn’t a matter of doctrinal controversy. We’ve already noted, as Paul
said in verse 2, that the Corinthian church was relatively doctrinally
sound. They believed the right things.
In verse 2, Paul commended them for that very thing. The meaning of words develops
and morphs over time. The original word meant to take,
and then began to refer to a choice or a selection. From there, it
began to refer to one’s chosen course or path, and ultimately
to the friction and separation brought on by these distinctive
choices. In other words, people were choosing
to pull apart from others, and ultimately to the darker New
Testament word that we know of as heresy. It was a conscious
preference for division. Factiousness implies a deliberate
choice motivated by self-will. It’s the attitude of mind and
heart that aims only to please one’s opinions and desires, not
those of others. It is inherently self-centered. Paul isn’t adding to the long
list of problems there at Corinth, dabbling or imbibing in heretical
thought. Rather, this is Paul’s way of
compounding the division that he had already addressed. Factiousness
is the mindset that leads to division. Factiousness, if you
will, is the internal, whereas division is the outward manifestation
of it. But as I said a moment ago, Paul
says that these divisions and factions have a God-ordained
purpose. God allows them. Paul says, so
that those who are approved may be evident among you. They have
a purpose. They come in as a test of believers’
faith, not in order to trip us up or to cause us to fall or
fail, but to prove our faith to us. This proving speaks not
only of testing, being tested, or of those who need to be tested,
but of those who have been tested and have passed. They are proven. We tend to think of difficulties
and trials in this life as annoyances. Paul says otherwise. James and
Peter echo this. James says that the testing of
your faith produces endurance. Peter says in chapter one, verse
six, in this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little
while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials,
so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold,
which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found
to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of
Christ. And so, In God’s good providence, something that was
ugly and horrible in the midst of the Corinthian church, God
is able to milk out something good and profitable. And in this
case, one who is approved is one who by God’s grace avoids
and rises above the divisive and factiousness of others. Others
who are divisive and factious will be seen in time for who
they are. Those who are not will be approved
through the very process of dealing with such people. We have much
to consider in the weeks to come. It’s enough for us that we don’t
ever want to taint our worship service, especially the Lord’s
table, with factiousness and division. We can only do that by God’s
grace.