Sermon Tone Analysis

*A Confession of Participation*

 

“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.”[1]

I want my communion!”

This is the pitiful cry frequently heard throughout the years of my service among the churches of our Lord.

Perhaps the ones crying don’t use those precise words, but their intent is to demand that I concede the accuracy of their doctrinal view.

The snivelling shares much in common with pouting children who demand their own way in a contest of wills with a parent.

However, the pouting comes from professed Christians who make no investment in the life of the assembly, but are nevertheless convinced that they should share in every dividend of grace.

Unwilling to accept the responsibilities associated with membership in the congregation, they illogically believe they should be full participants at the Lord’s Table.

I confess that I have often been tempted to respond to their whining with sarcasm.

“Oh, look.

Little baby Christians.

I wonder if they will ever grow up.”

The pouting saints are often reacting to biblical instruction or demonstrating pique at learning that my understanding of conditions for participation at the Lord’s Table fails to match their presumption.

It is not my practise to exclude anyone from the Lord’s Table; rather I take great care to teach accurately what is written, asking that those who choose to participate assume responsibility for their own actions.

As result of confronting the Word of God, however, contemporary saints often revert to whimpering rather than thinking.

In recent years I have observed what seems to be an increasing number of individuals who react with obvious irritation rather than examining the Word of God to discover whether their personal view finds support.

Rather than examining their own beliefs, they pout because their feelings are hurt.

It is my sorrowful assessment that grave confusion exists concerning the Lord’s Table.

Tragically, much of that confusion is perpetuated by preachers who fail to present scriptural teaching.

It is easier to permit the deviant liturgy that surrounds the Meal to continue than it is to confront error through careful exposition of Scripture.

In too many churches, the Lord’s Table is tacked on at the end of a service as though it were an afterthought rather than being the centre of worship that God meant it to be.

We who serve at the sacred desk bear culpability before the Lord because we have permitted this situation to continue for such a long time.

Whether the teaching I present is accepted or whether it is rejected by those listening, I am nevertheless honour bound to provide sound instruction in accordance with the Word as I seek to build strong believers who are thoroughly equipped to apply the truths of God’s Word.

The passage before us does not directly address the doctrine of the Communion Meal—the issue will be addressed shortly here in this first letter to the Corinthian church.

However, the Apostle did not shy from employing the Meal in presenting a rebuke to Christians who had become rather casual about the demand for a righteous life.

In the text for this day, Paul pointed to the declarations presented within the Meal to compel the Corinthians to bring their conduct into line with their profession.

The same need is apparent among Christians in this day, and therefore the teaching Paul provided will benefit us as much as it benefited the Corinthians.

Among the Corinthian saints there were not a few who had reduced the Christian Faith to a personal religion designed to make them feel good about themselves.

In other words, their religion was all about them.

They went to church, rather than being the Body of Christ.

They observed the liturgy rather than worshipping in assembly.

The Faith of Christ the Lord had become a series of private acts as an end within themselves rather than private devotion building to a crescendo as the Body assembled in worship.

Paul was compelled to address these dangerous deviations resulting from Christians altering the Faith that was once for all delivered to the saints in order to create a novel personal religion.

That same teaching is needed again today as the saints reject the revealed will of God in order to invent new forms of religion.

*Questions Concerning the Lord’s Table* — Though I have provided an explanation of my understanding of the Lord’s Table on other occasions, it will undoubtedly prove beneficial for us to review again what we understand Scripture to teach.

The questions that are immediately raised in a church context surround the issue of whether we observe an ordinance or a sacrament, and whether this is a church ordinance or a Christian ordinance.

The answers to these two questions will provide a basis for applying the doctrine of the Communion Meal, permitting us to worship in a manner that honours the Lord and fulfils His desire for us as a congregation.

I acknowledge that much, dare I say most, of Christendom believes the Communion Meal to be a sacrament.

To speak of the Meal as a sacrament implies that grace is conferred in some measure and in some manner through participation at the Lord’s Table.

Those holding such a view are undoubtedly sacerdotal and sacramental in their approach to the Christian Faith.

They hold that the Meal makes the one who participates a better Christian, or perhaps makes that one more acceptable in the eyes of the Lord.

Whether the advocates of the sacramental view are willing to state their case so boldly, this is the result of advancing this particular view of the Communion Meal.

Some hold to transubstantiation, others hold to consubstantiation, and yet others hold to a more nebulous mystical view of the Meal.

What all sacramentalists hold in common is the belief that God in some manner blesses participants because of participation.

To identify the Meal as an ordinance, on the other hand, is to acknowledge that this is a tradition shared with all who follow the Faith of Christ the Lord.

The Lord’s Supper was instituted by the Master when He gathered His disciples in the Upper Room on the evening He was betrayed.

The Meal was then handed down through the teaching of the Apostles to the churches of our Lord as an observance to be kept.

Those holding this position concerning the Meal understand that participation will not make one a better Christian, though participating in an unworthy manner may expose them for their hypocrisy and sin.

Those who believe the Lord’s Table is an ordinance understanding that we are already recipients of grace, and that whether we participate or not, we are now the objects of God’s mercy and grace.

If the Meal is a sacrament, then it is a serious matter to fail to participate in the Meal.

If the Lord’s Supper is a sacrament, failure to participate may indeed jeopardise the individual’s relationship to the Saviour and even their eternal standing with God.

However, if the Meal is an ordinance, the individual is in no danger should he or she fail to participate.

According to the Apostle’s instruction, however, those participating without recognising what they are doing, or those participating in an arrogant manner, or those participating while focused solely on their own interests, may place themselves in grave danger of divine judgement.

This is the reason for the apostolic warning, “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord…  [And] that is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died” [*1 Corinthians 11:27, 30*].

Those who have sat under my teaching will know that I hold to the latter view rather than the former.

I have no desire to pick a fight with any fellow Christian, but neither should fellow believers expect that I will jettison my own understanding for the sake of false and momentary harmony.

Moreover, I hold that this is a church ordinance and not a Christian ordinance, in so far as the Meal is intended to be a means of congregational worship and not an opportunity for private worship.

It is now time to consider these two views and the implications that arise from these disparate views.

It is fair to say that the view that holds the Lord’s Supper to be a Christian ordinance predominates among evangelical churches.

This dominance of a particular view does not make that position correct, only popular.

If the Communion Meal is a Christian ordinance, then the decision to participate is necessarily an individual judgement.

Whether one is baptised or unbaptised is of no concern to the congregation if the Lord’s Supper is a Christian ordinance.

Holding to this particular view precludes church discipline since the individual’s private judgement is the sole determinant of whether to partake of the Meal or to decline to participate.

Thus, those holding that the Lord’s Table is a Christian ordinance, whether they have considered the issue or not, practically hold that the Meal is intended to be private worship, albeit usually in a corporate setting.

However, if the Lord’s Supper is a church ordinance, then the local congregation is responsible to oversee the conduct of the Meal, and each particular congregation is the arbiter of whether those who are not members are permitted to participate or excluded from participation.

However, as overseers of the Meal, the local assembly is bound by Scripture to caution those who approach presumptuously and to restrict those who are clearly precluded by the Word of God from participating in the Meal.

Flowing from this understanding of Scripture is the position that the Lord’s Table must be a congregational form of worship, and participants are testifying to a real communion and not merely a mystical communion.

In other words, those participating are actually testifying that they are sharing their lives when they observe the Meal together.

The Lord’s Supper is an ordinance and not a sacrament; and it is a church ordinance rather than a Christian ordinance.

Thus, the Communion Meal is an act of corporate worship as the local church unites to remember the sacrifice of the Saviour, to confess their anticipation of His imminent return, and especially to confess their true fellowship as the Body of Christ.

Gathering at the Lord’s Table, we worship corporately as we confess that we share our lives.

Paul says that the “cup of blessing” is “*/a participation/* in the blood of Christ,” and that “the bread we break” is “*/a participation/* in the body of Christ.”

The word that is translated “participation” in either instance is the Greek term */koinōnía/*, which in older translations is rendered “communion.”

Thus, this is the origin of the reference to the ordinance as Communion.

At the Lord’s Table we jointly participate in worship as a congregation—we share our lives as members of His Body.[2]

 

*Participation Speaks of Shared Salvation* — “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?”  Warning the Corinthians against slipping into a religion that consisted of mere rite and ritual, Paul reminded them that they shared life in the Beloved Son.

Christ the Lord died that His people might live.

Thus, we are redeemed by the blood of the Lord.

The church at Ephesus, and by extension every church, has been “obtained with [God’s] own blood” [see *Acts 20:28*].

The blood of Christ serves as a propitiation to be received by faith [*Romans 3:25*].

Therefore, we who are Christians confess that “we have now been justified by His blood” [*Romans 5:9*]; “we have redemption through His blood” [*Ephesians 1:7*]; and He “has freed us from our sins by His blood” [*Revelation 1:5*].

There is but one way to salvation, and that is through faith in the Living Son of God.

Haled before the Sanhedrin, Peter spoke a great truth when he testified of Jesus the Saviour, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” [*Acts 4:12*].

There are not multiple ways to Heaven; there are not even two ways to God.

There is but one Saviour, Christ the Lord, who gave His life as a ransom for all mankind that “whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” [*John 3:16*].

Someone has said quite well that the ground is level at the foot of the cross.

There is no class distinction between Christians; we are either saints or we are ain’ts.

Writing Hebrew Christians who were being persecuted most severely, the author states, “Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.

Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world.

But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him” [*Hebrews 9:24-28*].

Therefore, we who are Christians “have been sanctified through the body of Jesus Christ once for all” [*Hebrews 10:10*].

To be certain, when we come to the Lord’s Table, we partake of bread and wine in remembrance of the Saviour.

Each of us confesses that the bread speaks of His broken body, given for us; and we confess that the wine sparkling in the cup speaks of His blood, shed for us.

Thus, the words that are spoken encouraging us to “do this in remembrance of [Him]” are more than mere words, for we look back, remembering His love that was displayed for each of us.

However, in the context of the message today, that salvation must be recognised as a shared salvation.

Each of us who are redeemed has the forgiveness of sin and the adoption as a son.

Each of us anticipates an inheritance as result of His sacrifice presented because of us.