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Collierville First Baptist Church
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1 Corinthians 11.
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You know, I got to thinking about something.
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We've had a lot of people become a part of our church.
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We've had a lot of people saved. There may be some folks here today who will be participating in the Lord's Supper for the first time. They've repented of their sin. They placed their faith in Jesus as Savior and Lord, and they've been biblically, scripturally baptized. And today is their first day to partake of the Lord's Supper.
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I got to thinking, maybe we need to explain why we do what we do.
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I think that's very important.
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So I want us to look today at the Lord's Supper, but I want to remind you that the Lord Jesus Christ, during his earthly ministry, instituted two ordinances for the church, only two, just two. Baptism and the Lord's Supper.
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Now, both of these give the church the opportunity
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to publicly profess their faith in Jesus
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and their belief in the gospel.
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So what is the gospel, you say? I love Paul's definition of the gospel. It's the best one in the Bible that I've found.
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It's in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verses 3 and 4,
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where Paul wrote, "For I delivered to you as of first importance
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what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried,
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and that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures." The death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a matter of first importance for the New Testament church.
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Baptism does not play a role in the actual salvation of a person.
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We are saved by grace through faith in Christ alone.
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Our Lord commands every believer to be baptized. Maybe you're here today and you had an experience with Christ like I had at Mississippi State, and you truly repented of your sin and placed your faith in Jesus, but you have not followed the Lord in obedience by being baptized.
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I want to encourage you today, when we give the invitation a few moments, you come to one of the staff members and you just tell them, "I need to be baptized in obedience to Christ."
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I tell you, it's an important part of our discipleship. It's an important part of our walk with Christ.
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Now, Jesus commanded us to be baptized.
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In Matthew 28, verse 19, Jesus said to his disciples before he ascended to heaven, he had already gone to the cross, died for our sins, had been buried for three days, was raised from the dead, and he was about to ascend back to heaven.
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And here's what he told his disciples,
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"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations,
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baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." So I want you to understand that baptism is not a Baptist thing.
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Baptism is a Christ thing.
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Now, during his last Passover meal in the upper room, just hours before he would die on the cross,
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Jesus was with his disciples observing the Jewish Passover.
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And Jesus took the Jewish Passover and transformed it into what we know today as communion or the Lord's Supper.
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He told his disciples in Luke 22, verses 19 and 20,
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"And when he had taken some bread and given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me."
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Verse 20, "And in the same way took the cup after they had eaten, saying, "This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood." And now for 2,000 years, for 2,000 years, the body of Christ, the church, has observed the Lord's Supper in honor of the Lord Jesus Christ and his death on our behalf.
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Jesus taught his disciples that he was about to sacrifice his body and offer his blood in order that sinners might be forgiven and so that sinners might receive the free gift of eternal life. You do understand it's a free gift. There's nothing you could do to earn your salvation.
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There's nothing you could do to make a way for you to go to heaven. There's only one way and that's through the Lord Jesus Christ who died on a cross, who was resurrected from the dead so that you might be saved.
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So the Lord laid out a fresh new way to honor him through the Lord's Supper. In fact, that's our goal today. And I would encourage everyone, young and old alike,
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to make this a very reverent moment in your life.
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We are observing something that the church had done for 2,000 years.
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We are publicly professing our faith in Jesus and in the gospel he came to provide so that we could be saved. In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul recorded the remarkable words that Jesus revealed to him. By the way, Jesus revealed this to Paul personally. He said, "Do this in remembrance of me."
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Now today I want to call your attention to three thought-provoking verbs that captures the essence of the Lord's Supper.
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First, I want you to consider the word, number one, remember.
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Remember, it's a verb. Remember.
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That's what I did when I was singing right here the old rugged cross. Well, I've been singing the cross and the resurrection of Christ and the salvation that God has so graciously provided for us. I remembered. I remembered.
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In 1 Corinthians 11, verses 23 and 24, Paul wrote, and I quote, "For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you,
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that the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed took bread.
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And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "It is my body which is for you.
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Do this in remembrance of me." So what are we to remember?
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Well, we're to remember Christ's body.
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The eternal son of the living God was incarnated 2,000 years ago into the human race and that first Christmas.
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And he received a body for the first time in all of eternity.
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And he lived in that body, lived a perfect life. He never sinned, not even one time.
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And at the age of 33, he was arrested and he was savagely beaten and pierced through because, get this now, because of our sins.
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In Isaiah 53, verses 5 and 6, Isaiah writing about 700 years before Christ was incarnated made this statement. It's a complete amazing description of the cross.
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He said in Isaiah 53, verses 5 and 6,
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"But he was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities.
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The chastening for our wellbeing fell upon him.
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And by his scourging, we are healed.
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All of us like sheep have gone astray.
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Each of us has turned to his own way.
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But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him on the Lord Jesus."
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In 1 Peter 2, 24, Joshua read it a few, or quoted it a few moments ago, "And he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross." Listen, every sin that you've ever committed in your life,
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every foul word that's come out of your mouth,
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every dastardly thought that you had in your mind,
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every time you refuse to forgive somebody,
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every time you mistreated your spouse or someone else,
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every sin that you've ever committed was laid upon the Lord Jesus, who was writhing in agony on the cross, dying, offering his body as a sacrifice for your sins.
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So we must remember Christ's body. We also must remember Christ's blood.
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In 1 Corinthians 11, 25, Paul wrote in the same way, "He took the cup also after supper,
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saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood.
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Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me."
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Jesus shed his precious blood for us.
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In Exodus 12, verse 13,
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when the children of Israel were in bondage in Egypt, they were in bondage in Hell's slave for like 400 years there in Egypt,
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and they were severely mistreated.
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And God sent Moses and Aaron to deliver the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage.
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And Moses, under the leadership of God, did a series of miracles to bring plagues upon the Egyptian people to convince Pharaoh to let his people go, the Jewish people go.
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And the last plague was the death of the firstborn of every Egyptian.
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And there was only one way to escape that sentence of death for the firstborn.
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God required that Jew or Egyptian alike, they had to kill a lamb and place the blood on the doorpost. And when the death angel came that night, if he saw blood on the doorpost, he would pass over those homes.
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And the firstborn would live.
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Now listen, in Ephesians chapter one, verse seven,
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the Bible says, "In him, in Christ,
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we have redemption through his blood,
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the forgiveness of our trespasses,
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according to the riches of his grace."
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So we come today as the body of Christ.
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We come in fellowship and unity,
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and we come to remember Christ's body.
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And we come to remember Christ's blood,
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that the sinless Son of God
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would do everything necessary to provide salvation for sinners like us.
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My goodness.
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To honor the Lord Jesus,
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we must remember.
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And then secondly, here's the second verb I want to present for your understanding today. The second verb is repent.
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Repent.
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If you skip down to 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verses 27 to 32,
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the Bible says, "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."
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But a man must examine himself.
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And in so doing, he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
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For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body, his own body rightly.
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Verse 30, "For this reason many among you are weak and sick and a number sleep."
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But if we judged ourselves rightly,
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we would not be judged.
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But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world.
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Now I want you to understand, I mentioned a moment ago
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that any time we observe the Lord's Supper, it ought to be the most reverent moment in your life.
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I say that because of the warning right here in our text.
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Because there were people in the church there in Corinth who were abusing the Lord's Supper. They were not taking you in a reverent way.
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And as a result, the discipline of the Lord was released upon many of the people there in the church in Corinth and some were sick and some even died because of their irreverent behavior.
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You say, "Pastor, you're being too serious."
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I'm not being too serious.
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I'm not being serious enough.
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I'm telling you, any time that you take the cup of the Lord in your fingers and you take the bread of the Lord in your fingers, you ought to be so unbelievably reverent and so respectful because of what Christ has done for you. For you.
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So the second verb is repent.
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Now, what should we repent of? Well, you should repent of your sinful conduct.
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Sin dishonors the Lord Jesus and it grieves the spirit of the living God.
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In 1 John 1, verses 5-9, the Bible says, "This is a message which we have heard from Him and announced to you that God is light.
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And in Him there is no darkness at all.
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Let me make something very clear.
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Sin and the presence of God do not go together.
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It's like trying to mix oil and water.
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They do not mix.
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Verse 6, "If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness," look at this, "we lie and do not practice the truth."
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You say, "Well, pastor, I'm a Christian
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and I don't think that my sinful conduct is that big a deal. I'm telling you, God thinks it's a big deal.
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It is a big, big, big deal."
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And in fact, the Bible says here, if you say you're a believer and you're walking in the truth, but you're participating in darkness and you don't feel any conviction and any need to repent of that, then I'll question your salvation.
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Now, not just me, the Bible says that right here.
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The Bible says you're lying.
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It's right there.
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I just read it to you. Verse 7, "But if we walk in the light,"
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in other words, if we live the way the Lord wants us to live
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and do the things the Lord wants us to do and say the things the Lord wants us to say,
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if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another
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and the blood of Jesus, His Son cleanses us from all sin.
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Just don't get any better than that.
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Verse 8, "If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us."
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If we confess our sins,
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the word confess means to agree with God.
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If the Holy Spirit in the midst of this service convicts you of a sinful conduct that you're participating in your life, that you've never confessed, you need to confess, you need to agree with God. You don't need to argue with God.
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You need to confess to God, you agree with God, you say, "Lord, you're right, that's a sin and I'm sorry, please forgive me."
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If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You say, "I'm a believer, pastor." What's the big deal? Listen, even believers commit sin, don't they?
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How many of you in here are born-again believers? Please don't raise your hand.
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How many of you in here are born-again believers? And you never say anything you shouldn't say, you never do anything you shouldn't do, you never think anything you shouldn't think,
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none of us can admit to that, none of us can say that.
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That's why we need to stay clean before the Lord. In 2 Corinthians 7, I think it's verse 1,
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Paul wrote, "Cleanse yourself from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God."
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That's what we're supposed to do, we're supposed to take clean before the Lord
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so that we can walk in fellowship with Him and with each other. So we repent of our sinful conduct, but we also repent of something else. We don't think about this very much, but we need to.
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We repent of our sinful complacency, complacency. Now complacency truly offends Jesus. You say, "How do you know that, Pastor Chuck?"
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Well, I know that because I read Revelation 3, verse 15, 16, I'm gonna read it to you too.
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Jesus said, "I know your deeds,
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that you are neither cold nor high." He wrote this to the church at Laodicea. "I know your deeds, that you're neither cold nor hot.
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I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth." Literally, literally in the Greek, it means I will vomit you out of my mouth.
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Is there sinful complacency in your life?
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Is there sinful conduct in your life?
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Listen, I hope and pray
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that today before you lay your hands on the juice representing the blood of Jesus and the bread representing the body of Jesus, I hope and pray that you will confess any sinful conduct and sinful complacency and ask Jesus to cleanse you and purify you and make you right with Him and right with the Spirit of God.
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Listen, the Lord's Supper is not only something you do with your hands in your mouth,
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it's also something you do with your heart and your soul.
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So let's ask the Holy Spirit
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to search our hearts for any sinful conduct or any sinful complacency so that we can truly honor the Lord as we receive the Lord's Supper today.
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In just a moment, we're going to have an invitation
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and I'm going to invite you to leave your seat or just stand right there at your seat and confess any sinful conduct or sinful complacency if you're a believer.
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Get clean before God,
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before you receive the bread and the juice today.
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So let me ask you, are you truly thankful for your salvation?
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I hope and pray you are.
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I know I am.
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Because I know where I was
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before I was born again at Mississippi State.
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I was a mess.
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And Jesus saved me.
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He changed me.
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I have never been the same and I am eternally grateful to Him. And when I've been in heaven for a million years, I'll still be praising Him and thanking Him for saving me.
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So how do we accomplish our goal of honoring the Lord today? We remember, we repent. And number three, here's a third verb, renew. Renew.
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Look at 1 Corinthians 11, verse 26.
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"For as often as you eat this bread
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and drink the cup,"
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you realize that if you live a hundred more years and you observe the Lord's Supper 500 more times, every time you do it,
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you are, look at, look what the Bible says. "As often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes."
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You're proclaiming the glory of the gospel,
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the glory of the cross,
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the glory of our Lord's death on our behalf.
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Notice these last three words, "until He comes."
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So what do we renew when we observe the Lord's Supper? We renew, you renew your commitment.
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When you repent of your sin and place your faith in Jesus as your Savior and your Lord, that means master,
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do you realize what you did? You said, "Lord Jesus, today,
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I deny myself, I will take up my cross daily,
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and I will follow you for the rest of my life."
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In Matthew chapter 24, verse 13, Jesus said this,
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it's a bone-shaking statement.
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He said, "But the one who endures to the end,
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he will be saved."
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What about the one who does not endure to the end?
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He will be lost.
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Now, let me tell you what that means.
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It's not saying you can lose your salvation.
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If you're a born-again believer, you can't be unborn, okay?
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You have the assurance that your sins are forgiven,
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that you're a part of the family of God.
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But here's what it means. It means that if you're a genuine, authentic, born-again believer, you will never apostatize and turn away from Christ. You can't do it. You can't do it.
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But if you're a pretender,
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if you're a pretender, and I'm afraid there are a lot of pretenders in the church today,
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I'm talking about the church as a whole,
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if you're a pretender and you pretend to be saved but you're not really saved,
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I promise you, you're in danger of not enduring to the end and missing out on the greatest opportunity of your entire life, the opportunity to have your sins forgiven and to have new life in Christ alone.
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A true believer may have some ups and downs in their lives, their spiritual lives,
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but they remain steadfast in their loyalty to the Lord and immovable in their convictions.
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So you must renew your commitment. You must renew your confidence, your confidence.
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In 1 Corinthians 11, verse 26, Paul wrote, "For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death," look at the last three words, "until He comes."
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Every time you gather with the body of Christ to participate in the Lord's supper, you proclaim the glory of the cross.
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Furthermore, you demonstrate your confidence and the promise of our Lord to return.
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Do you have that confidence today? Do you deep in your heart and soul really believe that Jesus is coming back?
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I believe it from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet.
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And I believe He's coming soon.
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I believe that when He makes a promise, He keeps His promises
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until He returns. Paul wrote this in 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 16 and 17,
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"For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and we shall always be with the Lord." Revelation 21, verses 3 to 4, "And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe every tear from their eyes." Oh, bless God.
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"He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will no longer be any death. There will no longer be any mourning or crying or pain. The first things have passed away." Listen, when our King comes, He's going to usher us into His presence
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where there is fullness of joy,
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and where in the right hand of God there are pleasures forever.
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That's why we must never lose our confidence in God's ability to keep His promise to us.
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Now, to truly honor the Lord Jesus,
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He must be more than just a name to us.
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He must be more than just one of the many famous religious leaders throughout history.
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Let me ask you, do you believe Jesus is God?
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Do you believe that Jesus lived without sin?
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Do you believe that Jesus died for your sins?
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Do you believe that Jesus was raised to life?
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Is He your Savior and your Lord?
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Are you devoted to Him? Have you received New Testament baptism?
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The Lord's Supper is a worship experience
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reserved for those who have committed themselves
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to the Lord Jesus Christ.
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They've received Him as Savior and Lord.
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This is not a snack.
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It's not a snack.
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This is a holy observance where we take the bread and we remember that Christ died for us, and we take the Jews, and we remember that Christ shed His redeeming blood for us so that we could be saved.
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This morning, if you're in this room, if you're watching live streaming, you've never repented of your sin and placed your faith in Jesus as your Savior and your Lord, I invite you
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to do the most important thing in your life.
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Say no to the world.
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Say no to your own selfish desires.
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Say yes to Jesus, and come to Him in saving faith this morning, and He will forgive your sin. He will change your life forever, just like He changed my life.
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