The Remedy for Divided Gatherings Pt. 3

Bibles and turn to First Corinthians
11. We come again this morning to
First Corinthians 11 in our ongoing effort to work through this lengthy
section. And that, quite by design, has
hopefully served to ready us for our own celebration of the
Lord’s table. If the Corinthians could veer
so far off course in the honoring of their Savior in this His institution,
any church can likewise stumble. And so we have done well to carefully
listen and to humbly evaluate our own participation in Christ’s
ordinance. Too often, our familiarity with
something can produce a dullness that leaves us just going through
the motions on occasion, even with something so special as
the ordinance of the Lord’s table, but not this occasion. To whatever
degree this passage was familiar to us, we trust that it is even
more so now. Having slowed down to study,
carefully over the course of these past seven weeks. For some,
perhaps the lessons were new. For others, perhaps this study
refreshed our memory on these passages. But we come to the
Lord’s table this time with a livelier grasp of the significance of
this ordinance. We approach now with a fresh
perspective of the Apostle’s concern that led him to admonish
this troubled church. And that’s a good thing. We trust
that this study has sharpened our focus and aided us in examining
and readying our own hearts personally and corporately. in our preparation
for communion. As we began to study the context
of this scripture, we learned of the disappointing behavior
and the sad condition of the Corinthian church, even during
so solemn an occasion as the Lord’s table. We hear Paul’s
very just rebuke of the Corinthians divided gatherings in verses
17 through 19, We reviewed the evidence that he delivered on
these divided gatherings in 20 through 21. And it was even with
a measure of grief that we read the very familiar words of 23
through 26, a contrast to the Corinthians divided gatherings.
It was unfortunate that Paul even had to issue such a reminder
about the nature of this ordinance. and to know that one church had
so dishonored the celebration served as a caution that we too
could do likewise. Hopefully we too, like this troubled
first century church, were comforted as well by the apostle’s hopeful
words. Even as sobering as his words
have been, direct and even stern at times, These are not the words
of a sworn enemy, but the words of a faithful friend. In the
fourth major section of his address, verses 27 through 32, we soon
see that Paul moves to provide corrective guidance, a remedy
for divided gatherings, And this gentle shepherd, Paul, adds words
of encouragement even to his words of alarm. Even God’s judgment
is, as Paul explains in these verses, it’s an act of mercy. And then, just as abruptly as
this section began, Paul effectively calls an end of divided gatherings
in verses 33 through 34. One last time, would you follow
along as I read the entirety of this passage, verses 17 through
34. 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 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 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 sleep. But if we
judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. But when
we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we would
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 manners I will
arrange when I come.” After issuing, in verse 27, one final warning,
a warning about partaking of the elements of the Lord’s table
unworthily, Paul begins to provide much needed relief. the relief
of divine guidance, the solution to partaking unworthily. We see
it in verse 28. The guidance is simple. If we
are to partake in a worthy manner, we must examine ourselves before
the Lord. And having urged this, Paul provides
the reason, the support in verses 29 through 32. We looked at those
two verses, several verses last week, and we concluded that as
Paul described it there in verse 29, to judge the body rightly
was essentially the same thing as he had said in verse 28, that
a man must examine himself. And judging the body rightly
is crucial because that is what enables us to avoid the physical
chastening of the Lord mentioned in verses 30. Weakness, sickness,
and the sleep of death. We’ll come back to that in a
moment. We left off last Lord’s Day in verses 29 and 30, pondering
the consequences for partaking unworthily. In short, it draws
down the judgment of God. We saw last week that Paul uses
four different Greek words to communicate these truths, all
translated in the language of judgment. Judgment, judge, and
then even the word condemned formed off of one of these words. And the word in this section
that speaks of God’s act of judgment. We see in verse 29, in verse
31, verse 32, all speak of temporal judgment, not eternal judgment. It’s God’s chastisement of His
believing children, not eternal judgment that is in view. We
also saw that such judgment is conditional. It doesn’t have
to happen. We bring it on ourselves if we
do not exercise our own act of personal judgment. If we, as
Paul says, if we do not judge the body rightly. Verses 29 and
31. So the solution to this foreboding
outlook of God’s judgment is really simple. Paul communicates
it over and over. Verse 28, a man must examine
himself. Verse 29, we must judge the body
rightly. And we saw that this word rightly
is really translational. It’s not a separate word in the
Greek text. It’s part of the verb. The form
of the verb here just speaks of a thoroughness of this process
of self-examination. It’s the exercise of personal
judgment. It’s not casual, it’s not half-hearted,
but it is thorough and objective examination before the Lord,
soliciting the Spirit’s illumination, exposing things that are displeasing
to the Lord our God. And we must not downplay or ignore
such spiritual illumination when it does occur, but we immediately
confess those things and seek, by God’s grace, to eradicate
such sins. To fail to do this or to refuse
to do this is to imperil oneself, to bring down God’s temporal
judgment on our own heads. To eat and drink of the bread
or the cup of the Lord’s table in an unworthy manner elicits
guilt and God’s chastening judgment. That’s what we saw. Such a careless
approach to the Lord’s table can lead to weakness, sickness,
and even to what Paul alludes as the sleep of death. And so
either we judge ourselves, that is we examine ourselves carefully,
or God will. But this judgment on God’s part
is temporal, not eternal. These physical maladies were
intended by God to impact believers spiritually. They are designed
by God as warnings of our current and degrading condition. It’s
not going to get better. It’s going to get worse if we
don’t confess these things. We saw as well that this means
of correction is not new to the Christian. The saints of old knew it well.
Physical hardship is to be expected in the midst of ignoring or downplaying
our sins. Psalm 32, again, when I kept
silent about my sin, my body wasted away. through my groaning
all day long. Physical chastisement is one
of our loving Heavenly Father’s most effective means of training
His children. And because of that, if and when
we are sick, not only ought we slow down, I told you that’s
one of the special designs of sickness, Not only should we
slow down, we ought to take occasion to examine ourselves again. And
to examine ourselves all the more closely. Is there anything? And we do this personally, but
we do not examine others who are ill. We do not judge them. That is God’s business, not ours. We can love and pray for our
brothers and sisters when they are weak and sick. We cannot,
must not assign blame. So these thorns in the flesh,
weakness, sickness, even death, sleep, can indeed be God’s judgment
upon an errant sinner. But it is not eternal judgment.
It’s temporal. And we saw that such judgment
by God is unnecessary. We do not have to experience
that kind of judgment. There is another means of correction.
Paul has told us about it numerous times. 28, examine yourselves. 29, judge the body. But he urges
the same thing in verse 31 as we close out this section. Look
at verse 31 and 32. But if we judged 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. Look at the simplicity of this
statement. If we do the one, we will not have to endure the
other. Literally judge or be judged. If we judged ourselves rightly,
if we examine ourselves humbly, prayerfully, before we partake
of the Lord’s Supper, verse 28, if we judge the body rightly,
verse 29, if we judge ourselves rightly, we would not be judged.
It’s that simple. And I want to call your attention
to an amazing thing here, a mark of true humility on the apostle’s
part. He says, we. Did you get that? In a series of verses speaking
about judgment, Paul includes himself in the consideration. As a matter of fact, he says
we five times. Look at it if you will, verse
31. But if we judged 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. Five
times Paul humbly includes himself in this consideration. Paul knows
the human condition because he’s human. And again, the two occurrences
of the word judged in this verse, so yet again, two different Greek
words, as we’ve seen. The first, diakrino, again, refers,
as we saw in verse 29, to a thorough self-examination, to carefully
analyze one’s heart. Paul said it was expected of
him as well. What Paul called judging the body rightly. Paul
says here, if we do that, if we judge ourselves rightly, we
will not be judged, judged by God. Paul’s use of this word here
points not, as we’ve seen, to eternal judgment. It has the
idea of corrective discipline. Paul says essentially that he
too has been disciplined at times by the Lord. And God means this
judgment to be instructive, even if it’s severe. And I believe it, pardon me, and
believe it or not, that makes this kind of judgment a good
and welcome thing to a Christian. God has placed us on the path
of righteousness and sanctification, so His chastening of us is not
destructive. It’s constructive. It’s corrective. But it still doesn’t need to
happen. It’s conditional. It can be averted completely.
We don’t have to face this kind of judgment if we would only
judge ourselves, Paul reiterates. Please observe this if you would
in verse 32, but. Well, even that one word snaps
us back to reality, doesn’t it? Paul says we don’t have to be
judged if we judge ourselves rightly, but the reality is we’d
like to think that we’re capable of avoiding the corrective judgment
of God forever by careful self-examination. The reality is otherwise. And
Paul says, but when we are judged, when, not if, when we are judged,
that corrective judgment of God is commonplace, Paul seems to
suggest. It’s not a rare thing. This kind
of thing occurs with great regularity in the church. And when it occurs, it has a
very gracious purpose. It’s an exercise of God’s mercy
toward us. He doesn’t want us off of the
path of righteousness. He doesn’t want us doing our
own thing. He doesn’t want us embroiled
in sin. And so God exercises his mercy
in sending us one of these chastening episodes. As I’ve already said,
this is not God’s final judgment. It’s temporal, it’s earthly judgment,
and it has a beneficial purpose. Would you glance again at verse
32? Paul says, when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord. That word discipline refers to
the kind of instruction given to a child. Child training. God has a good purpose in this
kind of discipline. It’s part of the child of God’s
training. It’s not empty. It’s not vindictive. We are wayward, and just like
a child, we need correction. And God, as a loving Heavenly
Father, moves in, steps in, and provides the very well-aimed
chastisement. And in the case of the Corinthian
church, this was not a difficult equation for them. Examine your hearts, he says,
with regard to greed and stinginess, pettiness. If they were routinely
and thoroughly and accurately to judge themselves, they would
not have to face the vexing features of God’s judgment. Examine your
hearts and purge the sin that the spirit exposes. Judge yourselves
so that God himself will not have to judge. This Lord’s table is not a game.
It’s not something a person can treat indifferently or carelessly. Paul not only graciously places
himself among the believers in this consideration, the believers
to whom he’s writing, we, five times, we can be assured that
Paul judged or examined himself before the Lord, just as he admonished
the Corinthians to do. That’s really all that we can
do with verse 31, because it’s somewhat hypothetical. If then,
is essentially what Paul says. But I would suggest to you that
verse 32 tells us that Paul also knew what it was to experience
temporal corrective judgment of the Lord. Listen to Paul again
in verse 32. When we are judged, we are disciplined
by the Lord. When might Paul have experienced
something like this? If you would just please turn
momentarily to 2nd Corinthians, one book to the right, and find
your way to chapter 12. 2nd Corinthians chapter 12. And in verses one through six
of that chapter, Paul is speaking about fantastic visions that
he had had, and revelations as he calls them. And then in verse
seven, listen to this. He says this, because of the
surpassing greatness of the revelations for this reason, to keep me from
exalting myself, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a
messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from exalting
myself. Was that Paul’s weakness, pride? That wouldn’t be a big surprise
to any of us, would it? Was it a weakness? Was it a sickness
in Paul’s life? It was something, something that
God had bestowed upon him for the express purpose of checking
his sinful pride. It’s possible. But even if not, we have numerous
examples from scripture, the psalmists, often speak of the
loving and merciful chastening of the Lord. Psalm 94, 12, blessed
is the man whom you chasten, O Lord, and whom you teach out
of your law. God corrects, and He corrects
for a good purpose. The chastened man is a blessed
man. Psalm 119, Psalm 119, 67, before I was afflicted,
I went astray. Do you see the formula here? Before I was afflicted, I went
astray, but now I keep your word. This shows the explicit design
of God’s chastisement to woo a strongly errant sinner back to the path
of righteousness. Wise King Solomon embraces God’s
chastisement as a sure indication of God’s love. Proverbs 3, my
son, do not reject the discipline of the Lord or loathe his reproof. For whom the Lord loves, he reproves. Even as a father corrects the
son whom he delights. Well, and you know that Hebrews
12 is an exposition of that passage. Back, if you would, to 1 Corinthians
11. So when God judges believers
by these temporal punishments, weakness, sickness, even death,
He does so as a means of disciplining us, correcting us. And Paul says
at the very end of verse 32 that there is another purpose. He
says that God continues His temporal judgment of His children, of
His church. He continues the process of purifying
them. Why? So that they will not be
condemned. This is the fourth word for judgment
in this grouping. And this one, kata krino, does
refer to final judgment. As Paul told the godless Athenians,
God has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness. And in that day, as Paul revealed
to the Thessalonians, the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven
with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution
to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey
the gospel of the Lord Jesus. That plan is for them. God’s plan for us is entirely
different. There will indeed be a final,
horrible, eternal judgment, which only by God’s great mercy, believers
in Jesus Christ will never face. But until then, God will continue
His purposes in purifying his people and his church. God has
already, as we’ve seen, placed us by his grace on the path of
righteousness. It’s not as if God has to clean
us up to the point where we measure up to his standard to make it
into heaven. We stand before him in the righteousness
of Christ. We are justified by faith. And in that sense, we already
have escaped the condemnation of the rest of the world. And
so Paul closes this incredible section with a final piece of
counsel. Wait till you see how simple this is. It’s specifically
fitted to the Corinthian situation. We find it in the closing words,
verses 33 and 34. 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.” What profound
and practical counsel does Paul leave this church with? Simple. Wait. Be polite. Be patient. Don’t go diving into the dinner
that you brought. brought for everyone to enjoy.
Don’t act like a bunch of selfish animals, hearkening back to the
concerns that he addressed in verse 21, where each one takes
his own supper first. One is hungry, another is drunk.
Instead, they are to wait for each other. When you’re all together, then
enjoy the feast. Now you may wonder, that’s it? After six weeks of focusing on
this passage, that’s it? Wait? Well, yes, that was it
for the Corinthians. That would have addressed the
primary error that led to all of this gluttony, rudeness, selfishness. And so Paul tells them, wait. Please look at verse 33 if you
would. So then, my brethren, Paul softens his address as much
as he can, reminding them that they are first and foremost brothers
in Christ. My brethren, when you come together
to eat, when you celebrate the special ordinance of the Lord’s
table together with this love feast, wait for one another.
Be patient, be gracious. Be other oriented. wait for one
another. And this could mean that they
were to wait until everyone had even arrived. Remember that was
a concern. It could be that they were to
wait until everyone had gathered in the dining hall, the fellowship
room. It could mean that they were
to wait until everyone was seated and ready for the meal. I think
it encompasses all of that. We would even add, wait until
everyone has been through the line before you move in for seconds. I’ve observed church potlucks
for my 30 year plus of ministry, and it’s always concerning to
me to see someone who’s early in the line fill their plate
to overflowing, completely mindless of those behind them. and such
behavior is at least akin to what was going on in Corinth.
Paul just says, wait. This is a fellowship meal capped
by the Lord’s table, communion. Its purpose is spiritual, not
physical. It’s about addressing spiritual
needs and growth, not satisfying our hunger. And by its very nature, it’s
supposed to be a unified celebration. Wait, be patient. Do this together. By the way, this isn’t even in
my notes. It concerns me greatly, this habit now. I think it started
during COVID, maybe even before. I think I’d even heard of it
before. What communion now is in a, it’s mixed, it’s a little
bit of juice and the top of it has a little cracker. You peel
off one foil, you eat the bread, then you peel off the next foil
and you eat the crack, the juice, whatever. And now, Those are
all in a basket or a bucket or a bowl in the front of the church,
and it’s optional. You can partake of communion
or you cannot partake of communion, and you can take whenever you
want. You just carry it with you. In fact, it becomes completely
optional. You can even take it home and
do it sometime during the week when it’s more convenient for
you. That’s not communion. That’s not togetherness. That’s
not waiting. And in the same context, Paul addresses
the issue that prompted the misbehavior in the first place. Glance at
verse 34. If anyone is hungry, let him
eat at home. It’s not about gorging your face.
This is an echo of his earlier suggestion in verse 22. Do you
not have a house in which to eat and drink? The love feast
with the Lord’s table is not an all-you-can-eat buffet. It
is again a fellowship meal. Fellowship is paramount. To conduct
yourselves otherwise, as we’ve seen, is to invoke God’s displeasure. And this Paul reiterates as he
concludes this sentence, so that you will not come together for
judgment. Evidently, Paul had other things to address with
these believers. He says as much in verse 34. Some things are best addressed
in person. Paul wanted to look some people in the eye. What
were you thinking? We don’t know what these matters
were. He just calls them cryptically remaining matters. I’ll talk
to you when I get there. These were likely things pertaining
to the unfortunate matters that he’s been addressing in the latter
half of this chapter. Division, selfishness, factiousness. Everyone is on notice now. I’m
coming. I’ll talk to you when I get there.
And while he leaves the timeline wide open, he just says, when
I come. And it’s clear that he intends
to pay the church a visit. And this shouldn’t be understood
as a threat, a veiled threat. It’s a pastoral promise. I’m
coming. And when I come, we’re going
to talk about a few things. He’s told them repeatedly in
this letter that he’s planning a visit. Chapter four, his announcement
is very forceful. Some have become arrogant as
though I were not coming. I’m coming. He alludes to a visit
three more times at the end of this letter. If I come in 14.6,
when I come in 16.2, I will come in 16.5. Paul was so concerned
about this issue of waiting, waiting for all the members to
arrive for dinner, waiting for everyone to be seated, waiting
for everyone to get something to eat. because it was proof
of the division in their midst. This was not only offensive to
Paul as the founder of this local church, it was offensive to Christ
as the founder of this institution. Now I ask you, if selfishness
was offensive to the Lord, and it is, What might the Lord
think of our pettiness, our lack of peace or forgiveness of one
another, our lack of commitment to one another and to Christ’s
church, our lack of focus on the significance of this table,
that Christ instituted this for our good and for His glory. When
we come to Christ’s table, We are to come as genuine believers
in the Lord Jesus Christ, coming with a genuine and a grateful
heart. We are to come at peace in our
hearts toward others, having sought or granted forgiveness. We are to come having examined
ourselves by prayer and the Holy Spirit, having confessed whatever
the Spirit has brought to our attention. We are to come gratefully,
reflecting on all that Jesus Christ has done for us, the great
price by which our salvation was secured. With that heart, let’s prepare
for the Lord’s table.