EXAMINATION: A PREPARATORY TEST


How to Come Together

1 Corinthians 11:1-34


      Those who come together around the Lord’s Supper ought to take a spiritual preparatory test. Augustus H. Strong listed four prerequisites to participation in the Lord’s Supper.

•          Test of salvation. The apostles offered the Lord’s Supper to believers.

•          Test of baptism. Christ ordained baptism as the first ordinance of obedience.

•          Test of church membership. The Lord’s Supper is a church ordinance.

•          Test of obedience. To walk outside of fellowship with Christ would contradict the meaning of the Lord’s Supper. Endnote


      Charles H. Spurgeon said, “If you will be blessed under the Word, would that you would pray before you come here. You sometimes hear of preparation for the Lord’s Supper — I am sure if the Word is to be blessed, there ought to be a preparation for hearing it. Do you, when you come up to this house, pray to God before you come, ‘Lord, give the minister words; help him to speak to me today; Lord, save me today; may the Word today be a quickening word to my poor soul?’ Ah! my friends, ye would never go without the blessing, if ye come up prayerfully looking for it, having asked it of God.” Endnote


  I. Congregational unity (11:17-22)


      In the early church believers shared a meal in association with the Lord’s Supper known as the agape (Acts 2:46, 20:11; 1 Cor. 11:20-34). Ignatius (ca. A.D. 110) mentioned this love feast (Smyrna viii. 2) as did Tertullian (ca. A.D. 200; Apol. 39). The feast demonstrated the believers’ commonness and charity as one body in Jesus Christ.


     In 1 Corinthians Paul mourned the contentious spirit of the Corinthians which carried over to the Feast of Charity. Schisms (1 Cor. 11:18) and divisions (1 Cor. 11:19) marked their observance of the Lord’s Supper rather than charity. By a lack of love, the Corinthians despised that which Jesus counted sacred.


      A. For worse, not better (17-19)


          1. Dissension (scismata–1 Cor. 1:10, 12:25)


          2. Division (Gal. 5:20; aireseiV-“distinct and organized parties” Endnote )


      Dissension and division in the church fellowship bled over into the worship service and made the church worse. Those who joined these party divisions proved that they were not on the Lord’s side.


      Jerry Vines illustrated, “I heard one time about a little fellow who jumped up into his daddy’s lap and began hugging his daddy. But as he was hugging his daddy, he was also sticking out his tongue at his little sister. So the father said, ‘Now wait a minute, Son, you can’t hug Daddy’s neck and stick your tongue out at your sister at the same time.’” Endnote


      B. Own supper, not the Lord’s supper (20-21)


          1. Exclusive (Lk. 14:7; each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else)


          2. Excessive (Eph. 5:18)


      C. Correction, not praise (22)


          1. Despise (1 Cor. 3:16)


          2. Disdain (Jas. 2:6; humiliate those who have nothing)


      Jerry Vines related, “When we come together and put our attention on the. . . Lord Jesus it just has a way of dissolving all of our differences and all of our conflicts.”

“I heard about a couple that lost a little girl, a precious little girl. It was a heart-rending experience for the couple to see that little girl grow increasingly weak and then finally die. As it sometimes occurs, through the trauma and tension of that kind of experience, the couple was pulled apart and began to fuss. They began to blame one another. Their differences were heightened and were focused through that experience, so much so that the couple decided to separate. So they met together at the house to discuss the distribution of the property. As they were sitting there going through different things, deciding who would get what, the father reached into a box and he picked up the little red shoes of their daughter. The father looked at those little red shoes, and the mother looked at those little red shoes. Then they began to recollect and to think about experiences they had shared when the little girl was born. They remembered how they took that little girl to get her first picture made. They remembered how the little one took her first steps. In the recollection of one that they both loved dearly, they discovered that their differences were not nearly so prominent as they thought. Their common recollection of one they loved brought them back together. Friends, that’s the way it works in God’s house, that’s the way it works in the family of God. When we gather at the Lord’s table and when we gather together for worship, we must always focus our attention on Christ and remember what Jesus has done for us.” Endnote


 II. Spiritual identity (11:23-26)


      Paul received the teaching he delivered concerning the Lord’s Supper directly from the Lord Jesus (1 Cor. 15:1-3).


      A. Remembering the body (Jn. 6:53; 1 Cor. 10:3-4)


          1. Thanks (Mk. 14:23; Acts 27:35)


          2. Type (Acts 2:46, 20:7-11)


          3. Thought (remember–Ps. 78:11-42)


      Charles H. Spurgeon, “And allow me to suggest one profitable way of improving the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper. That is: while you are partaking of it, my friends, renew your dedication to Christ. Seek this morning to give yourselves over afresh to your Master. And when you drink the blood of Christ, and eat his flesh spiritually — in the type and in the emblem, then I beseech you, let the solemn recollection of His agony and suffering for you inspire you with a greater love, that you may be more devoted to His service than ever. “ Endnote


      B. Remembering the blood (Heb. 10:29)


          1. Distribution (cup)


          2. Dispensation (covenant)


          3. Declaration (coming)


III. Personal purity (11:27-34)


      The Didache, 14 (c.a. A.D. 125) stated, “And on the Lord’s own day gather yourselves together and break bread and give thanks, first confessing your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure. And let no man having his dispute with his fellow join your assembly until they have been reconciled, that your sacrifice may not be defiled; for this sacrifice it is that was spoken of by the Lord:”


      A. Judgment by conscience (27-28)


          1. Trivialize


              a. Unworthily (1 Cor. 16:4)


              b. Guilty (Mk. 3:29)


      Believers partake of the Lord’s Supper worthily by discerning the sacrifice of the Lord’s body on the cross (1 Cor. 11:27). Believers would rather die than insult Jesus’ death on the cross by living an unholy life. Just to think of the cross will keep a believer’s conscience sensitive to any sin.


      Believers also discern the meaning of the Lord’s body–the church (1 Cor. 11:33-34). The church is the holy temple of God (1 Cor. 3:16). Believers must respect Christ’s body, the church, and never bring shame upon the people of God.


      As a word of caution, Paul did not say a believer must be worthy to take the Lord’s Supper, for then no one would qualify (1 Tim. 1:15). Believers must distinguish between being unworthy (adjective) and taking unworthily (adverb). John Calvin wrote, “In seeking to prepare for eating, worthily, men have often dreadfully harassed and tortured miserable consciences, and yet have in no degree attained the end. They have said that those eat unworthily who are in a state of grace. Being in a state of grace, they have interpreted to be pure and free from all sin. By this definition, all the men that ever have been and are upon the earth, were debarred from the use of this sacrament. For if we are to seek our worthiness from ourselves, it is all over with us; only despair and fatal ruin await us. Though we struggle to the utmost, we will not only make no progress, but then be most unworthy after we have labored most to make ourselves worthy.” Endnote


          2. Test (1 Cor. 3:13; 2 Cor. 13:5)


      To avoid living unworthily, believers must constantly prove themselves and walk in the will of God (Rom. 12:2). Judging oneself in self-judgment (1 Cor. 11:31) prevents judgment by God (1 Cor. 11:29-32). Believers must repent of sins like worldliness (1 Cor. 11:32) and selfishness (1 Cor. 11:33).


      John Owen said, “Friends, let us not be afraid of calling ourselves to a strict account. We have to do with Him ‘that is greater than we, and knoweth all things.’ Let us not be afraid to look into the book of conscience and conversation, to look over our surprisals, our neglects, our sinful failings and miscarriages. These things belong to this preparation, — to look over them, and mourn over them also. I would not be thought to myself or you to prescribe hard burden in this duty of preparation. It is nothing but what God expects from us, and what we must do if we intend any communion with him in this ordinance.” Endnote


      B. Judgment by chastisement (29-34)


          1. Sickness (Ps. 38:3)


          2. Weakness (Heb. 12:12-13)


          3. Deadliness (1 Jn. 5:16)


Dan. 5:22-24 [NIV]. But you his son, O Belshazzar, have not humbled yourself, though you knew all this. Instead, you have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven. You had the goblets from his temple brought to you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you did not honor the God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways. Therefore he sent the hand that wrote the inscription.


      Without self-judgment and repentance, the chastisement of God will come upon a believer (Heb. 12:8-11; Rev. 3:19). God uses the tools of chastisement to bring believers back in restoration.


      Specifically, Paul instructed the Corinthians to judge how they treated one another and tarry for each other. Getting ready for the Lord’s Table meant gathering in unity at their table. Strangely, if a believer does not receive another believer at the Lord’s Table, then the Lord Himself, the One to be honored, will rise to leave (Rev. 2:5).