Lessons from the Corinthian Church Part 4

CCI Fellowship's podcast focuses on reaching God, each other, and the community. The message challenges listeners to grow in their faith and love for God's Word. They are studying lessons from the Corinthian Church and specifically looking at verses 17-26. The topic is unity and the importance of coming together for communion. The Corinthian Church had divisions and selfishness during their gatherings, which went against the purpose of communion. The message encourages listeners to prioritize unity and selflessness in their own church gatherings. Welcome to CCI Fellowship's podcast. Thank you for joining us. At CCI Fellowship, we are reaching God, reaching each other, and reaching our community. We pray that this week's message challenges you in your walk with the Lord, causes you to grow in your faith, and encourages you in your love for the Word of God. All right. Open your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 11. 1 Corinthians 11. We're continuing our series in Lessons from the Corinthian Church. We're going to focus on verses 17 to 26, and then next week we are going to start in verse 23 and go to the end of the chapter. So there will be an overlap of a couple of verses, but next week we will have the opportunity to celebrate in the Lord's Supper, so you don't want to miss that. I felt it was fitting to take communion on a Sunday that we're focusing on communion. So make sure that if you recognize that somebody is not here, somebody you're used to seeing and they're not present, be sure to let them know so that we don't lose out on this opportunity to celebrate the Lord's Supper together. So Paul in this section is dealing with, again, we're going over some questions that they had, some behaviors that had come up in the Corinthian Church, and this is the next one that Paul deals with. He dealt, of course, what we talked about the last two weeks in headship, in order of authority and submission, in unity by every part doing what is required of them or what pertains to them. I heard a fabulous example today that I won't go into in too much depth, but it had to do with the need of, OK, it's an aviation example, it has to do with in-air refueling, where there's a refueling plane and there's a jet that needs fueled. They're connected by a hose. They're flying together. One can't move independent of the other, or one can't move without affecting the other. They have to fly at the same speed. They have to maintain their altitude. One has to be lower. The one receiving the fuel has to be lower than the one giving the fuel. Both planes have very different purposes. Both planes have very different abilities. Both planes have their specific roles, but they go in concert with each other. They go in unity with each other. It was a great picture of what headship and submission is, that when we come under the headship of the one that is above us, it doesn't negate what our gifts are. It doesn't negate what our abilities are. It doesn't change who we are. It just puts us in the right place so that we are in concert and in harmony and in unity with the one that is above us. That was really Paul's aim in the first part of this chapter 11, to show us the unity that we need to walk in and the headship that we need to be under, because out of that flows the blessings of God. One minister friend of ours, he was preaching one time about something similar, and he said, You know, we want to experience the flow of God's anointing. We want to experience the flow of His presence and His power, but really we've just got a kink in our hose. It's not that God is not sending it. It's not that there's not pressure behind it. It's not that there's not a desire from God to supply it. But you know, when you have a kink in the garden hose, you can have so much of it bound up that nothing comes out, or you can have some of it bound up so that just a little bit comes out. And this preacher, he goes, Just get the kink out of your hose and you'll start experiencing the fullness of what God has for you. Amen. So Paul goes on in this chapter, and he moves on into another topic, and let's pray right before we read this. Father, we bless Your name. We thank You. We give You glory, Lord God. We exalt You. We thank You for Your Word. We thank You that Your Word instructs us, increases our knowledge, gives us understanding. But Your Word is spirit and life, as Jesus said. It's not just lifeless information that we gain. There are words, Lord God, that touch our hearts, that bring life to us, that bring freedom to us. We thank You, Lord God, for the opportunity to meet together openly, without fear. We thank You, Lord God, for the opportunity to hear from You tonight, and I pray that You would speak through me. Father, it wouldn't be just information, but that You would touch our hearts, that God, You would promote within us the unity of the body that You desire from us. Help us to understand spiritually, Lord. Not to see things with our natural mind and our earthly wisdom, but Father, to receive from the Holy Spirit the revelation that You want to give us tonight. That it would change us and transform us more and more into the image of Christ. In Jesus' name, Amen. Verse 17, 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 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 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 have 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 a 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. No doubt we're all very familiar with verse 23 to 26. In a lot of churches, during the Lord's Supper, that is the section of Scripture that is read. But why is it there? What is Paul dealing with? Why does Paul say, That which I also passed on to you? Why is he bringing this up here? What is going on within the body of Christ? Certainly it wasn't unity. Certainly it wasn't sacrifice that we've been talking about. Our five points—unity, sacrifice, knowledge—what are the other two? Love and order. This order was what reigned in the Corinthian church. Why? Because they were selfish. They were only thinking of themselves. But Paul says there's a double offense that is happening here. It's not just when you come together, it's not for good. So he's telling them that their motives, they're wrong. When you come together, you're not doing good. But he takes it one step beyond because their offense was one step beyond. It wasn't just that they weren't doing good, it's that they were purposefully causing harm. They were purposefully making themselves stand out in difference to other people. Not for the better, but for the worst. Of course, from church history, we understand that they had these love feasts, very similar to what we do once a month when we go for family dinner or fellowship dinner at food truckers or whenever we have a different event where we have food there. It's a potluck. Everybody brings their part. When we have Thanksgiving at our house and there is a whole lot of food, what was happening here, let's take Thanksgiving as an example, what is happening here is as if last Thanksgiving we had 70 plus people at the house. That's a lot of people. It would be as if the first 12 that arrived ate all of the food before the rest of them could get there and just left a little bit. Is that love? Is that camaraderie? Is that community? No, it's selfishness, it's gluttony. It's not just being inconsiderate, it's purposefully harming to other people. And the attitude that the Corinthian church had, as we see through what Paul says in these verses, is that when you gather together, it's not for the Lord's Supper. These feasts were supposed to be centered around the Lord's Supper. They were supposed to be centered around unity. They were supposed to be centered around remembering what Christ had done and looking forward to when he would return. But that's not what it stayed. The focus became more about getting in there, having your own food, drinking your own drink before you were compelled to share it with somebody else. Before you were compelled, before guilt came upon you, oh, I guess I should share, I guess I should give this, I guess I should, you know. It's that incredible selfishness. Now how do we look at this for us, though? It's not like we have a weekly feast. We have a monthly feast. We go, everyone pays for themselves, you can eat whatever you purchase. It's not really the same thing. But have you ever taken an opportunity to invite somebody to come join us for that time of fellowship, to offer to pay for them? That could be something as another example. Something that we could take and learn from this and apply into our present day. But what this really shows us, what this really brings up, and this actually carries through this part of chapter 11 and into chapter 12, where Paul is talking about that every part of the body is important, that every part of the body supplies what the rest of the body needs. And that is the idea of consumerism, that really we come to church most of the time for what we can get out of it, what we need, what we want to receive. We become more focused, again, our example is at the table, our example is food, but the idea is still there, just played out in a different way, where we come to church to have our own desires fulfilled. There's even an opportunity within serving in the church that this could be present as well. Well, what do you mean, I serve? I serve on the greeters, I serve in the kids, I serve on the worship team, I serve in this, I serve in that. Why are you serving? Because I should. That's still not a good reason. Why are you serving? Because I feel fulfilled when I serve. That's still not a good reason. That's still that consumerism reason, that what can I get out of it? I don't want to serve too often, because then I'm serving all the time and I won't receive anything. Listen, if Sunday is the only day you receive something spiritual, you have a bad spiritual diet. If Sunday is the only day that you're opening your Bible, if Sunday is the only day that you're praying, if Sunday is the only day you're receiving encouragement spiritually, then you need to look at your discipline, because it's not discipline. Your priority is not God. Oh, well, you know, we're busy. Everybody's busy. One of the things about this church is that we are a church for busy people. That has been one of the themes from the beginning. We are the church for busy people, which is why there's so many services over the weekend. Which one fits for you? Which time slot are you able to go to? What's the goal in that? To provide people a place to come when they can. And on the flip side is to take away an excuse for you not to come to church. Well, I can't come. Why not? Because of this and this and this. Well, let's just provide you a whole lot of opportunities for fellowship. Let's provide you a whole lot of opportunities for getting together. Why? So that we can grow. So that we can serve each other. He's getting on them because their desire in meeting together had nothing to do with seeing each other grow. And they were using the Lord's Supper as an excuse for that. The context was supposed to be in love. The context was supposed to be giving. The context was supposed to be sacrifice. But it turned into selfishness. To the point where it wasn't just selfishness. I'm not considering another person, but I am purposefully keeping this for myself. I'll give you a good example. When I came into, she knows what I was going to say. When I came into Adriana's family, you know, we would, um, well it was after we had moved here. You guys know how much I love food. I'm guilty of this. Because I would buy a package of Oreos while I was at her mom's house. And I would make sure to put it on top of the refrigerator. Why? Because everybody in her family is short. I knew they were safe up there. Because I didn't want to share. I wasn't thinking about them. I was thinking about me. So I'm guilty of it. I'm not exempt from this. I'm guilty of it. It's not just a selfishness, it's a I'm going to keep it from you. And you know, that really is, I think it's the difference between jealousy and envy. Right? Jealousy is, I'm, I want what you have. Envy is, since I don't have what you have, you shouldn't have what you have. So envy takes it even further. Jealousy is just, I feel bad for me. Envy creates a disdain and a disregard for the other person because, well why should they have that? Why should they? Why should, you know, God blesses somebody else and you're like, well why did God bless them and not me? That's envy. That's not even jealousy. That's envy. And envy is even worse. Envy does harm. Jealousy will lead to envy. But the heart of the matter is, are we coming to church to serve each other? Or are we coming simply for what we can get out of it? You know, people, people get upset when they come to church if we don't sing the right song. Or if the music is too loud. Or not loud enough. Or the air is not cold enough. The air is too cold. We get so focused on how our experience is. Instead of saying, God, I am your servant, therefore I am everybody's servant, how can you use me today to serve somebody in the body? Now Paul says here there must be factions among you. There must be divisions among you. But the word he uses for factions and the word he uses for divisions in the previous sentence are actually a little bit different. Divisions are just, they're kind of like schisms, they would use the word, splits. But not like church split. Not like great grave splitting. But just splits. And Paul deals with this back in chapter 3. So turn to chapter 3. We're going to look at this real quick. In chapter 3, the verse 4 verses, he says, and I, brethren, could not speak to you as spiritual people, but as the carnal, as the babies in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food, for until now you were not yet able to receive it, and even now you are still not, for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal in behaving like mere men? When one says, I'm of Paul, and another, I'm of Apollos, are you not carnal? So this division here is not a division of grave separation, it's just some light division. I don't know, I can't, you're not supposed to use the word to define the word, but separations. Well, you know, I go to this fellowship group. I go to the Uwe's group, and we're the better group. I go to the Echo group, and we're the better group. I go to the Elitio group, and really, we're the best group. You know, there's some jockeying, there's some division there. Not that I'm saying it actually exists, I'm just using it as an example. But it's not division that creates discord. When Paul says, there are factions among you, he's talking about the level of division that causes discord, and the Greek word that is used here is actually the word heresy. Now we've come to understand the word heresy to mean false doctrine, bad teaching. But the original implication of the word heresy had to do with things that divide, and really heretical teaching is something that divides. But the word heresy means divisive opinions within one group, discord and contention. In other words, it wasn't to the point where people were separating and leaving the church, but there was a purposeful dividing within the body to say, this group is better than that group. To show we are more prosperous than that group. Or to shame the ones that don't have by the things that the ones do have. Chapter 3, verse 21, Therefore let no one boast in men, for all things are yours, whether power, or polis, or cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come, all are yours. All, we belong to each other. All are yours, you are Christ's, and Christ is God's. Kind of sounds like the first part of this chapter in Headship. So to me, I always thought that Paul was being a little snarky here, a little sarcastic here in saying, of course there should be divisions among you, but how else would we know who are those that are approved? In other words, those who are approved by your standard, not those who are approved by God's standard. We know, we can see in other places that Paul does employ sarcasm sometimes, and I had always read this verse in that light, that he's saying, of course, how else would we know which one of you is more holy than the other one? And it's not that case. I couldn't find one commentator that would agree with my position of sarcasm, so I changed what I thought about this section. And instead, it has to do with how God takes what men design for division and brings in unity instead. He's saying, of course there's factions among you so that those who are committed to God will be those that shine in the face of injustice and selfishness. And those that shine in the face of division will be those to whom the others are drawn to. How else will we know whom God has approved, not who man has approved? You're showing who man approves by your behavior, but out of this God is going to bring about something that will work for His glory. For those who are dedicated to Him will be those through whom His love flows and those to whom others are drawn. Jesus said, they will know that you're my disciples by your love for one another, which means that we will know those who are fake by their lack of love for one another. We don't want division in the church, nor do we want those who are cloaked in falsehood to thrive within the church. We want division to be driven from us. It would be much better if we loved those people who are trying to create those cliques and groups within the body, if we would love them into unity. Does that make sense? James talks about this. In James chapter 2, it's verse 1 through 13, so you can read it at some other point. I'm just going to read a couple of verses. But it says, My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory with partiality. Don't be partial. Don't be exclusive. What's happening here is exclusivity. You know, it is natural within a body of people that certain people are going to gravitate together based on personalities, character, based on what you like and don't like. That's a natural aspect of group dynamics. It's going to happen. There's nothing wrong with that. When it becomes something wrong is when we exclude others purposefully out of prejudice or dislike. That's when a clique becomes damaging. That's when being a groupie becomes harmful to other peoples because it says, You do not measure up to my standard. We don't measure up to God's standard ever. And He accepts us in. So why would we prevent others from receiving from the fellowship of love that God has placed in us and growing together in the grace of our Lord? In verse 2, James chapter 2, For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings and fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes, and say to him, You sit here in a good place, and you say to the poor man, You stand there or sit here at my feet, have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts. You see, this verse gives a little more picture to what was going on in the hearts of the Corinthians. They had become judges with evil thoughts. Later on in those verses, James says, You have disrespected the poor man because of your favoritism to the rich man. I think that's a powerful word. You have disrespected. Our purpose in coming to church, our desire in glorifying God in our community should be respect to each other. Should be to fulfill what others are in need of. If we do that, it really comes down to Ephesians 4.16 that says that a body causes itself to grow by every part doing what it is supposed to. Sure, certainly there's times when one part of the body is in greater need than the other. That's what chapter 12 is dealing with. When one member of the body suffers, the rest of the body suffers. I guarantee you, when we went and saw Saul yesterday, because of the one pain and the one area of his body, you could tell that his whole body was suffering. Think in the same manner. But that doesn't mean that we should just, Oh, you're causing problems because you are in need, so we're going to kick you out. We're only interested in unity and harmony when everybody is not needing something from us. Again, that's being part of the body with selfishness. How can I be used by God to serve you? Being friends with every single member of the church is not realistic. It's just not going to happen. We just don't get along with everybody in the level of good friends. You can only be good friends with so many people. And if you're an introvert, so many people is like two. So all the introverts said, Amen. However, being friendly, showing brotherly love, honoring and preferring each other, as it says in Romans 12 verse 10, that's a must. And no amount of character, whether introvert or extrovert, excuses us from that. Paul goes on and he's pointing out here, you have lost focus. You've lost focus. When you gather together, it's not to celebrate the Lord's Supper. You may call it that. You may have set out to do that. You may have had this intention, but really what it has become is that you have lost focus. You have gotten distracted. How many things in life now are a distraction? And one could even say there are more distractions nowadays than there have ever been. No, not really. The devil will use anything to distract God's people. It's not that there's more. It just looks different. Distractions have always been a weapon the enemy uses. What has distracted you today? What has distracted you in life that is keeping you from pursuing God in a greater level? What has distracted you in life that is keeping you from serving one another in a greater level? I think we can all submit to that question and evaluate our lives. Are we allowing other things to prevent us from getting closer to God and serving one another? Our relationship with God includes our relationship with each other. We were talking with somebody this week. The very same thing. We cannot say, let's just be in Jesus. We cannot say, I'm right with Jesus when we're not right with each other. In other teachings and such, people would talk about the order. What is the order of priority in life? My relationship with God, especially in the family and in ministry. My relationship with God is first. Then my relationship with my wife and family. Then my relationship, as it has to do with ministry, and my relationship with others. That's very convenient and very easy for us to understand in our very linear ability to think. What we don't get is this relationship that is, it's just me and God first. If these other things are not in place, then this doesn't work either. I just want to get alone and pursue God. I just want to get alone and, I mean, after all, Jesus got alone and had his time of prayer. He did. And then he got up. He went down the mountain and he started serving people. He tells us in Matthew, not in these verses, that's in my sermon for 6 o'clock, anyway, I think it's Matthew chapter 5. He says, the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many. Why do you come to church? Why do you gather together? Do you gather together to be served? To be fed? To get your spiritual meal served to you on a spoon? There are people like that, who are so spiritually lazy they won't open the Bible for themselves and digest the food that is given to them, and instead they want somebody to tell them everything. I was helping somebody understand some things one time, and I gave them the verses to look through, and then they said, well, explain it to me. I said, no. Pray and ask the Holy Spirit to teach you. You're not a child. You're not new at this. You spoon-feed a child. You don't spoon-feed adults, or grown-ups, or growing people. No, we can't just sit there and say, feed me. I just want to receive. There are moments that we need a shot in the arm. There are moments that we need somebody else to come beside us and pick us up and carry us along for a moment, not forever, until we can get our feet strengthened under us, and then we can go and do the same for somebody else. That's what Paul is talking about here. That's the point that he is trying to express to the rest of Christianity as he deals with this specific instance in the Corinthian church. But as he comes into v. 23, For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you. As I was studying and looking at this, what popped out to me from the Spirit was as if Paul was telling them the same thing that he told the people in Philippi, in chapter 2, v. 5 of Philippians, that says, Let this mine be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. You see, in the first section of chapter 11, we see that God had exampled for us. That God is the head of Christ. That Christ is submitted to the headship of the Father. And no differently, as he moves into this next section, does he not give us an example from Christ. He's saying, you guys are getting together. You are doing more harm than good. You are there for selfishness. You're there to be a glutton. You're there to even get drunk on your own things while somebody else suffers in lack. But let this mine be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. And he says, I receive from the Lord that which I also delivered to you. In other words, we've already gone over this, folks. This is not new information for you. But he brings them in remembrance of what really the Lord's Supper is about, because it highlights, it exemplifies, it magnifies self-sacrifice. And for our good, he allowed his body to be broken. And for our good, he shed his blood so that we could have a new covenant with him. So that we could be in right relationship with him. So that we could be redeemed to the Father. Sacrifice. How can I serve? Who can I serve? Who can I interact with? And yes, the introverts go, interaction? I don't like interaction. That doesn't mean you have to interact with every person in here. But you know, the Bible wasn't written to exclude introverts or to exempt them from service. Nor was it written so that extroverts could look at us introverts and say, you're not as holy as I am, because I know everybody's name in the church. Those character things, those personality things, they don't fly with God. Well, this is how God made me. Have you ever read the verse that says, be transformed by the renewing of your mind? This is, this may be how we are, but all of it must be submitted to who God wants us to be. All of it must be submitted to loving one another and serving one another. Because in serving one another, we serve him. Just me and God. That doesn't, that, nope. It's bad theology when you say just me and God. Because you and God is you and everybody else. Because we were saved, set free. The Holy Spirit is put inside of us. And all of that is done freely. And he tells the disciples, freely you have received, freely give. So I encourage us tonight, not to feel like this was a beat you over the head and I don't know if I can talk to people thing type of message. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying, why do you come to church? And for those that attend Fellowship Group, you might find this question in your group this Thursday. Why do you come to church? Is it for you or is it for God? Because if it's for God, we will come with an expectation for multiple things. An expectation to glorify him through our praise and our worship and our presence in his house. I remember one time I woke up, the church that we were working with was like on the corner of the property we lived on. You couldn't get much closer to the church. And we had decided not to go to the service that morning. And I woke up and I was praying and I'm like, God, I love you. I'm just praising him and just as quick as anything, the Spirit said to me, how can you say you love me if you don't love my house, if you don't love my presence? I elbowed Adriana. I said, get up, we're going to church. So we come with an expectation to show our love to God. We come with an expectation to receive from him what he wants to instill in us through our worship time with him and through the sermon time. Let's add in also to come with an expectation to be used by him to encourage somebody else. That's what reaching God, reaching others, and reaching our community is all about. Glorifying him, edifying each other, and advancing the kingdom. That's why we come together at church. Not one over the other. All three are important. So think about that question this week. Why am I here? Why did I come to church? And may God work in our hearts as a congregation towards unity, love, sacrifice, order, all in the knowledge that he gives us through our excellent teacher, the Holy Spirit. Amen? Let's stand together. Next week we will start again with verse 23, for I received of the Lord that which I also delivered to you. And we'll look at the part that is after that, which in some Bibles, if your Bible is divided into sections, that section would be entitled something like examine yourself. And it talks about having the right attitude when you approach the Lord's table. Having the right motive when you approach the Lord's table. And it really tells us something that some people may be like, well, I'm not too sure about that. There's a part of it that we need to understand definitely spiritually, because in the natural we can explain it away. But it doesn't change the spiritual principles. So make sure that you come back next week to get the other part of this section. As we sing this song, I'm going to pray. We want you to get your tithes and offerings together. Ishmael and Francis will come at that point, but let's pray. Father, we, we adore you. We extol you, Lord, we exalt you. We humble ourselves before you and before each other. Lord, you taught your disciples to say we are simply servants doing what is required of us. Father, forgive us as you have required of us to edify and strengthen each other. And many times we shy away from it. We turn our back on it because of our own self-doubt or our own pride, our own arrogance. Father, may we be a congregation that serves each other, every one of us. May we be a congregation, Lord God, that dwells in unity because of your love flowing through us. May we be a congregation that is willing to look to the needs of each other and to our own. May we be a congregation, Lord God, that has every part, every joint supplies. It causes growth in itself, in love. God, I bless this congregation. I speak life over it. I speak joy over it. I speak joy over each person. Peace, Lord God. Father, open our eyes to see how we can be used by you and how much greater it is, Lord God, to give and to receive. We bless your name in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you for listening to this week's podcast. If you are ever in the Tegucigalpa area and looking for an English speaking congregation, please join us on Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m. in the main auditorium of Iglesia CCI in Colonial Trepici, just off Boulevard Sollapa near Una. If you'd like prayer or more information about our church, contact us at fellowship.cci at gmail.com, that's fellowship.cci at gmail.com or follow us on social media. We hope to see you or hear from you soon. Blessings. Amen.