Sermon Tone Analysis

“When you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper that you eat.

For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal.

One goes hungry, another gets drunk.

What!

Do you not have houses to eat and drink in?

Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing?

What shall I say to you?  Shall I commend you in this?  No, I will not.”[1]

The Lord’s Supper is integral to Christian worship.

However, this rite is too often treated thoughtlessly as though it were merely a prerequisite of the liturgy required in order to free us to do what we deem to be really important.

We perform the rituals associated with the ordinance without thinking about what we are doing.

Observance of the Lord’s Table has become routine, so habitual and so pedestrian within our churches that we have forgotten a basic truth—this is the Lord’s Supper, not ours.

We are not at liberty to invite whom we will to the Table, but rather, it is the Lord Himself who invites whom He wills to share in this Meal.

When you sit down at your dining table, I seriously doubt that you look outside to see if there is anyone wandering by whom you can invite to join you at the table.

Most of us are somewhat careful about who we invite to our table.

Certainly, we invite family and friends to share in our camaraderie.

Perhaps we will invite some who are less fortunate than us to join us in enjoying the bounty with which God has blessed us.

However, strangers wandering past our home have no right to our table.

It is obvious to most of us that we do not “owe” anyone the right to share in our meal.

It is our table; and we invite those whom we wish to bless with our friendship to join us as we eat.

It is not simply that we are providing food for friends and family, but that we are sharing ourselves.

Around the table, we fellowship; we share our very selves at the table, giving something of ourselves to those who join us at the meal and receiving convivial intercourse in return.

Because dining together is more than merely an act of ingesting food, we are careful about whom we invite to join us.

Strangely enough, what is obvious in the world beyond the walls of the church is ignored at the Table of the Lord.

Here, we grow quite passionate about our “rights” to the Lord’s Table.

However, should we not inquire of the Lord whom He invites to His Table?

If this is truly His Table, then He must have the final word concerning who eats at His Table.

Thus, we should ask whether the Bible has anything to say concerning those invited to the Lord’s Table.

Indeed, when we ask, we discover that God has addressed this issue, though we have largely ignored what He has said.

We need to clarify the purpose of the Lord’s Table in order to discover who is invited to the Lord’s Table.

Then, having established the purpose of the ordinance, we will likely discover God’s instruction concerning those who are to share at the Supper.

Ultimately, asking how we arrived at the point now observed within evangelicalism will benefit us through deterring us from continued error.

Join me, then, in exploring Paul’s instruction to the Corinthian Christians concerning who is invited to the Lord’s Table.

*The Lord’s Supper Defined* — What is the Lord’s Supper?

If we were introducing an individual to the Meal for the first time, how would we explain what we were doing?

Those of us who have introduced our children to the Faith have had occasion to explain the rites and rituals of the church at some time as they wondered about what was happening as we partook of bread and drank the juice.

After he had instituted the Passover Meal, Moses was commanded to write, “When your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’

you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses’” [*Exodus 12:26, 27*].

Israel was also commanded to redeem the firstborn male of all their herds and flocks, as well as redeeming the firstborn son.

The ceremony reminded them of God’s grace to them as a nation.

However, Moses appended these words, “When in time to come your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’

you shall say to him, ‘By a strong hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery.

For when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of animals.

Therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all the males that first open the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem’” [*Exodus 13:14, 15*].

Then, when Moses had given the great Shema Prayer to Israel, he commanded the people to teach the truths of God to their children, talking about them and giving opportunity for the children to witness them as they carried out the prescribed worship.

Moses concluded these instructions by commanding the people, “When your son asks you in time to come, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the Lord our God has commanded you?’” the people were responsible to explain to their children the significance of what they did [see *Deuteronomy 6:20*].

As was true for Israel, the rites and rituals of the Faith provide opportunity to explain our Faith.

Baptism is a visual portrayal of the Gospel—the death, burial and resurrection of Christ our Lord; it pictures how the old nature of those baptised was dead in trespasses and sin, and how the ones baptised have been raised to new life through faith in the Living Saviour.

In a similar manner, observing the Meal gives opportunity to speak of what we hold true.

We can tell those who inquire that this is a meal of remembrance.

Eating the bread and drinking the wine remind us that Christ’s body was broken for us and that His blood was shed for us.

We can tell those observing that this is a meal of anticipation, for we are commanded to observe this ordinance until He comes for us.

Likewise, we can inform those who ask that this is a meal of fellowship in which we confess our fellowship with one another and with the Risen, Reigning Son of God.

These explanations, offered to those who inquire, are in keeping with the teaching of the Scriptures.

The Master instituted an ordinance and not a sacrament.

He is not materially present in the Meal, as our Romanist friends contend.

Neither is He mystically present, providing grace through ingesting His body as many of our Paedobaptist friends insist.

At the Last Supper, the Master did not invite His disciples to bite His arm or to nibble on His toes.

When He said, “This is My body, which is given for you,” He made it clear that He was not instituting a sacrament, for He continued by instructing them, “Do this in remembrance of Me” [see *Luke 22:14-20*; *Mark 14:22-25*; *Matthew 26:26-29*].

The Meal we observe is a */Meal of Remembrance/* in which we commemorate His love, recalling how He willingly sacrificed His life for our benefit.

As Paul declares, “While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.”

Again, he emphasises this truth when he writes, “God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” [*Romans 5:6, 8*].

In brief, the Communion Meal is an act of commemoration, a time to remember the love of Christ.

The Meal is as well as */Statement of Anticipation/*, for we are to share in this Meal “until He comes” [*1 Corinthians 11:26*].

This is in keeping with the declaration of the Master at the Last Supper that He would not drink the juice with His disciples “until that day when [He will] drink it new with” us in His Father’s Kingdom [*Matthew 26:29*].

Whenever we participate in this Meal, it should cause us to reflect on the promise of His coming again to take us to be with Him.

We should draw encouragement from the knowledge that He is coming for us, and at His coming we will be transformed into His likeness—“we shall be like Him” [*1 John 3:2*].

The Meal is also a */Declaration of Fellowship/*, for it is always taken in assembly.

Those holding to a sacramental view, whether openly expressed or covertly held, are prepared to give the elements of the Meal to people outside of the time when the church is assembled.

Consequently, among some churches the Meal is commonly given to husband and wife as they exchange vows, to the sick in their hospital beds, and to others outside of the assembly on various occasions.

However, Paul’s language clearly exposes the absurdity of this point.

Listen to his declaration found in *1 Corinthians 10:16, 17*.

“The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?

The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?

Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.”

The Meal is a “sharing,” a “communion” [cf.

*KJV*] in the body and blood of the Saviour.

Assuredly, we declare our fellowship with the Risen Master; however, we declare that fellowship through sharing our life with the assembly where we observe the Meal.

There are rules for partaking of the Meal, all of which point us to fellowship with the Risen Son of God as we walk in godly concourse with His people sharing the Meal.

What are the prerequisites for participation at the Lord’s Table?

The question demands that we state that churches have executive authority, though they have no legislative authority; we are obligated to obey what God has commanded rather than creating rules.

Certainly, */regeneration/* is the foremost prerequisite.

How can one remember the sacrifice of the Master if they have never received Him as Master of life?

How can one live in anticipation of His return if they have never accepted the sacrifice provided at His first coming?

How can one be said to walk in fellowship with the Living Saviour if they refuse to own Him as Ruler over their life?

The Apostles, and by extension, the early church, are never known to have offered the Meal to outsiders.

Again, */baptism/* is required to participate at the Lord’s Table.

This is obvious from the following considerations.

Baptism was instituted and administered long before the Communion Meal was introduced.

The Apostles who participated in the Meal had all received baptism before participating.

In the Great Commission, Jesus established baptism as preceding other observances: “Make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” [*Matthew 28:29, 20*].

The example of the early church upholds this order [e.g.

*Acts 2:41, 42, 46*].

The symbolism of the ordinances demand baptism before participation—there must be birth before celebration; sanctification, declared on the merits of Christ’s sacrifice, cannot precede the New Birth.

“The Didache,” a document dated to the early years of the apostolic church preserves the following statement, “Let none eat or drink of your Eucharist except those who have been baptised in the Lord's Name.

For concerning this also did the Lord say, “Give not that which is holy to the dogs.”[2]

Those who are disobedient to the initial command of the Saviour exhibit questionable loyalty to Him in every other facet.

An */orderly walk/* is required of those who wish to observe the ordinance.

If the Meal is merely communion of the individual with the Master, then the church has no right to exclude anyone.

However, we are instructed to exclude those who are disorderly.

Immoral conduct is to be dealt with by excluding those who act in such a manner from the Lord’s Table [see *1 Corinthians 5:1-13*].