Lesson 27

Table Manners

I Corinthians 11:17-34

Today I want to teach you some table manners. Some of you can remember your mother instructing you how to demonstrate grace and poise and proper ettiquette at the dinner table. Some of you are still in the process. Sit up straight. Don't talk with your mouth full. Don't chew with your mouth open. Get your elbows off the table. Use your fork not your fingers. Take your time.

But it is not dinner table manners of which I shall speak today. I Corinthians 11:17-34 some of God's instructions about participation at two Christian celebrations, both of which involve eating.

As we shall see, this is not the first reference in this letter to the Corinthians on this subject, but it is the most detailed. Both of these celebrations are meaningful and important. They demonstrate our fellowship with one another and with the Lord. On of them is a significant act of worship.

Enough hinting. Let's look at the text and learn some "Table Manners."

The Feast Of Charity, 11:17-22.

What we would call a potluck supper or a Church fellowship, was known in Bible times as a feast of charity. That is what is called in Jude 12. To put it in our venacular it would be called a love feast. That sounds straight out of the 60's hippie culture so I prefer to call it by the King James phrase, a "feast of charity." It's the equivalent of a church potluck. This first part of this text (vs. 17-22) seems to be about these.

At the Corinthian church, these gatherings were not good. In fact, from what Paul had heard and tended to believe about this church at Corinth, the congregation was in better shape when they arrived at church than when the departed, v. 17. The assembly of the church ought to be helpful, strengthening, refreshing, and encouraging but just the opposite was happening at Corinth.

Throughout this letter, Paul has had to deal with the internal problems of this church, a major one has been divisions, see 1:10-13. In this passage, Paul writes again about this same problem. According to verse 18, Paul had heard reports about the divisions in the Corinthians church, reports which, though possibly exaggerated, he tended to basically believe. The word for divisions is the word from which we get our English word scissors. It means to rip apart. There is nothing so painful as when a church is ripped apart by internal problems. At some time or another, most Christians have experiences such an event. Many of you have. I certainly have. I can remember leaving church feeling literally physically nauseated and sick from the words that were spoken, tempers that flared, the people that left. I have never experiences the breakup of my family but I cannot imagine it being any more painful than church breakup. It is bad and painful.

But verse 19 gives an interesting perspective on factions. Paul says that "heresies" (the word refers hear not to false doctrine but to factions) are necessary because they reveal ("manifest") those who are "approved". This word translated "approved" comes from the world of the minting of coinage. It has to do with proof that a coin is not counterfeit but of genuine gold. Paul is saying that even though, from our perspective, divisions are painful and bad, they are necessary because they reveal who the genuine Christians are. That which is counterfeit will not stand the fires of factionalism within the church. But the genuine perservere even through these kinds of painful fires. Christians need to be able to rise above the fray of factionalism, to see and solve the problem and make things better for there having been a problem. For example, in Acts 6 a division occurred along cultural lines - the Greeks vs. the Hebrews concerning the daily care of widows. The apostles were able to rise about this problem, remaining impartial and unpartisan. The division revealed a legitimate need which when met made the church bigger, better and stronger. Though painful, divisions and the factions they create have a good effect on the church. That's a new perspective on internal church problems, isn't it?

It seems that in Corinth, the divisions revealed themselves at the feasts of charity. Beginning in verse 20, Paul speaks about a congregational meal that "is not the Lord's supper." According to verse 21, there was no sharing in the church, no real fellowship. The rich would not share their food with the poor and some went home hungry while others went home gorged, even drunk. Can you see the factions, the divisions in the church along socio-economic lines? The cliques and groups that were in the church were especially manifest at events which were intended to be times of church fellowship. If you are just coming for food, if only for selfish indulgence, then you are better off to stay at home. Desecrating a church meal is despising the Lord's church, like desecrating an American flag is an attack on the country. "Do you despise the church?" Paul asks. "Are you trying only to embarrass the poor who had nothing to bring to the fellowship?", verse 22. Some people try to use these verses to teach that it is wrong to eat in the church building but that is not the point at all. The church is not a building but a congregation of people. The early church often assembled in homes where people ate every day. This passage is about fellowship. Fellowship meals are not mostly about food. They are mostly about people, about sharing, about caring and loving. They are a means of bringing unity to the church. In the case of the Corinthians, they were not producing unity; they were revealing the divisions. I have to tell you, Dearborn Baptist Church, that the more the church grows, the more cliques and factions tend to form and the harder we have to work at fellowship.

We have people in this church who just naturally have very good social skills. They are butterflies that move easily and naturally from person to person. But some of us are not naturally like that. We are quiet and withdrawn. Instead of butterflies, we tend to be wallflowers. Our natural tendencies become great excuses to keep us away from people, to keep us in our own little group of friends, to hinder the fellowship of the church. I once said to my pastor, "Well, that's just the way I am." He said, "Well, if there is something bad about the way you are, then you need to change the way you are." Some of us need to overcome our nature and learn the value, the importance, the necessity of building relationships with other people for the cause of Christ and for the glory of the Lord. Don't skip the fellowship opportunities. Force yourself to circulate among people. After all, we are all just people. Some perhaps have a little larger income than others, or a higher level of education, or some other superficial something that is different. But, the truth is , we are all just people who need each other and who need fellowship.

The first table manner that we need to learn, is the sin of selfishness. We must learn to share, more than just our food, we must learn to share ourselves with others in the church. The Lord's Supper, 11:23-34.

Beginning in verse 23 and continuing through the rest of the chapter, Paul turns from the feast of charity to the celebration of the communion, as it is called in some places in scripture. It is also referred to as the Lord's table and the Lord's supper.

While the feasts of charity were virtually strictly an expression of church fellowship, the Lord's supper has to do both with fellowship within the church and worship of Christ. I repeat, it is not of just singular importance. It is about your personal relationship with and worship of Christ, but is also about your fellowship with the church.

I want to establish the significance of the supper in these two areas.

We make no apology for saying that at Dearborn Baptist Church we believe and practice what is often called closed communion. I do not like that term because it is so easy to misunderstand. To say that communion is for "members only" sounds elitist. That is not at all how we feel. It is not about our spiritual superiority and some non-member's spiritual inferiority. It is about our understanding of what the Bible teaches.

I prefer to call it restricted communion. It seems to me that all Christians believe in restricted communion. I am often asked about open communion. The person who asks will say that whether or not a person takes is a personal matter strictly between himself/herself and the Lord. They remind me that I Corinthians 11 says that each person must examine themselves. Well, as we shall see, I certainly cannot and do not deny that personal self-examination is absolutely necessary before one partakes of the Lord's Table.

However, virtually all Christians agree that communion is not for unbelievers. We would all agree that communion is for believers only. We all believe that there are restrictions upon who should participate in communion, we just don't all agree as to what those restrictions are.

Permit me to establish the Biblical basis for "closed communion."

We do not take communion alone, that is individually. According to verse 33 of our text, we "come together to eat" and we are instructed to wait on each other. In fact, four times in this passage, Paul has used the phrase "come together", vss. 17, 18, 20, 33. Verse 18 says that this coming together is as a church. Verse 29 recognizes that it is important as we take communion that we "discern (recognize) the Lord's body". This refers not to Christ's physical body which died on the cross, but to Christ's physical body, the church, which surrounds us as we take the Lord's supper.

Communion is both an individual act requiring self-examination and confession, and a corporate act involving the church.

I Corinthians 11, although the longest and most detailed passage in the epistles about communion is not the only passage. In fact, Paul has made reference to communion in at least two previous passages in this very epistle. Let's look at them.

I Corinthians 5 indicates that communion is connected to church discipline. There is, in this chapter, an extreme case requiring church discipline reported of. A man in the church was committing fornication with his step mother. Paul gave clear instructions that this man was to be put out of the church, v.13b. Putting the man out of the church meant that they were "not to eat (v. 11) the unleavened bread (v. 8)" with him. Because communion is connected to church discipline, it is restricted to those who by means of membership have placed themselves under the discipline, the accountability and authority of the church. The church is restricted from eating with those outside the church.

Moving forward to I Corinthians 10:16-17, Paul says that participation in communion speaks of our unity with each other. The Lord's supper is not an ecumenical service, nor is it a denominational service, it is, and has been recognized throughout history as a church ordinance. It is connected to discipline and it has to do with our unity and fellowship within the church.

Going back to its institution, Christ restricted it the apostles those who according to I Corinthians 12:28 he placed in the church first. Although it is not absolutely clear, I believe that only eleven of the apostles were present when Christ instituted his supper. John's gospel does not record the Lord's supper but does speak about Judas being dismissed immediately after the Passover (John 13:27-30). In Acts 2, the proper order was salvation ("receiving the word"), followed by baptism which added the person to the church, followed by breaking bread.

With my whole heart, I believe that participation in the Lord's supper is restricted to scriptural baptized believers who are members in fellowship with and of the church in which they are taking the communion. This is not an elitist position. It is the biblical pattern. If non-members are present when we observe the Lord's supper, while we do not physically prevent them from participating, we explain our doctrine and ask them to respect what we believe. Non-members are welcome to attend a Communion service. In fact, a communion service is a witness to non-members of the importance and value of church membership.

We live in a unique time and place. It is unprecedented in history for Christians to have no church membership until recent times and western countries. However, many expect the benefits and privileges of church membership while being unwilling to commit to membership. They will not be baptized or they will not join the church, but they expect the pastor and the church to rush to meet their needs - be it an illness, a death, a financial crisis - they expect to take communion which is more than just an event, it is a deeply meaningful experience, what one author called "the highest expression of worship" without meeting the requirements, making the commitments or taking the responsibilities of membership. The two go together. If you want to privileges of membership, you must become a member. Belonging to a local church is important and valuable. Christianity isn't just something to believe in, it is something to belong to.

In I Corinthians 11, Paul assumes that those who participate at the Lord's table are in the church, based on what he as already established previously. Now, beginning in verse 23, Paul explains to them about the supper.

What Paul delivers, commits, passes down to the Corinthian church about communion, is that which he has received directly from the Lord. Paul did not get these words from the Matthew, Mark, or Luke's gospel because those gospel accounts had probably not been written yet. This came to Paul by inspiration, v.23a.

An Explanation Of The Elements, vs. 24-25.