Focus: The significance of participation in the Lord’s Supper extends to all of life.
Function: To encourage the people to develop and practice spiritual discernment in all kinds of moral and religious practices in life.
Text: I Corinthians 10:14-22
Lord’s Days 28-30
One of the Twin Cities’ attractive features, I suppose, is the availability of many different restaurants. A few years ago, I ate with my family at an Ethiopian restaurant in St. Paul. There I broke a table manner learned from my mother: “Don’t eat with your fingers!” Well, I had no choice at that Ethiopian restaurant. I broke my mother’s rule.
Another memorable occasion I have is eating with Pastor Chan at his favorite restaurant. Pastor Chan likes frog legs. Well, at that time I refused to break the rule that I learned when I was very young: “A farmer does not eat what he does not know.” I did not know frog legs; I was not going to eat them. Fortunately, the restaurant had a large menu, and I could choose plenty of food to enjoy. I suppose the varieties of restaurants and the differences in menus make dining out in the Twin Cities for many an enjoyable experience. We are free to go to any restaurant and enjoy its particular menu.
When it comes to soul food, however, that is, when we participate at the Table of the Lord, things are different. Anyone who participates in the Bread of life sent from heaven, anyone who eats and drinks the body and blood of the Lord must restrict his diet. I cannot eat from any other menu than the menu that the Lord our God offers us. The Lord’s food sanctifies us and nurtures our soul and connects us with the Lord Jesus. The menus of the world, however, offer foods that defile us; they spoil our relationship with the living God.
The menus of the world offer foods and practices that sever our allegiance with Christ, and that hold us in bondage to the powers of darkness. That’s why the Apostle Paul wants us to take note of the significance of participation in the Lord’s Supper. The Lord’s Table sets before us a menu that extends to all of life. Christians must be very particular when it comes to the menu of the Lord’s Table in contrast to the menu of the table of the world. In fact, the Lord’s Table calls Christians to develop and practice spiritual discernment in all kinds of moral and religious practices.
Listen to the text: (vs. 20b, 21) “…I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons.”
Do you remember the story of Daniel and his friends? King Nebuchadnezzar needed well-trained, good-looking, intelligent young men to become leaders in his Babylonian kingdom. These men must be “people of the world,” trained in modern science and astrology, up-to-speed with the gods and religions of Babylon. And they must always be at the service of the King at a moment’s notice.
So, Nebuchadnezzar finds these young men from Israel: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. Their names signify their loyalty to the God of Israel. Their upbringing called for complete allegiance to Yahweh and his sacred Word—the Law and the Prophets. Their diet called for items that are “kosher.” Pork was not allowed. So, what does Nebuchadnezzar do?
He
secularizes them: He gives them names that signify allegiance to Babylonian
gods: Belteshezzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And Nebuchadnezzar gives
them a daily amount of food and wine from his table. Nebuchadnezzar thought: Give
these bright, Godly men from Judah secular names and food from my royal table;
train them in worldly wisdom and present them to me in three years. And they
will do my and Babylon’s bidding.
You probably know the story. They refused to eat from the menu of Babylon, and they remained faithful to the God of Israel. Listen again to the text: “…I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons.” Mmm. I wonder what Paul is getting at!
The Apostle Paul is writing to the church in Corinth—a church filled with people who are recent converts from pagan practices. The members of the Corinthian church are very familiar with religious rites performed in the temples of Apollo, Asclepius, Demeter, and Aphrodite. Temple prostitution and temple sacrifices to pagan gods are daily occurrences in Corinth. And business parties involving foods and drinks offered to idols are very common. It’s in that context that the Apostle Paul writes: “…my dear friends, flee from idolatry.”
Earlier in chapter 10 we notice that Paul wants us to learn from God’s O.T. people Israel. When Moses led God’s people from Egypt into the Promised Land, the Israelites did many things that are instructive for us as Christians today. We must learn from them. Paul refers to them as “idolaters” and as people who “set their hearts on evil things” (v.6,7).
They continued pagan practices learned from Egypt. They sat down to
eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan revelry. They committed sexual
immorality; they tested the Lord; they grumbled and protested the ways of the
Lord. And the Lord punished them. “These things,” says Paul, “happened
to them as examples and were written down as warning for us, on whom the
fulfillment of the ages has come.”
It’s in this context of evil actions and pagan revelry and superstitious rites that Paul says, “flee from idolatry.” And it’s in that context that Paul holds before us the Table of the Lord over against the table of demons or the menu of the world. The Lord’s Table sets before us a menu that extends to all of life. Christians must be very particular when it comes to the menu of the Lord’s Table. In fact, the Lord’s Table calls us to develop and practice spiritual discernment in all kinds of moral and religious practices.
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Note that the Apostle Paul uses the Table of the Lord as a basis for his call to flee from evil and idolatry. Paul uses rhetorical questions (whose answers are implied by the way the question is raised) to teach us some essential things about the Lord’s Supper. Listen: “Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?” Implied answer: Yes!
To take the bread and the wine is an act of faith, whereby God’s Spirit connects us with Jesus’ sacrifice. To eat the bread and drink the cup is to participate or share in the death of Christ and in the fruit of Christ’s death. We identify with Christ’s atoning sacrifice. And we also share in the fruit of Christ’s resurrection. We participate in the life that Christ opens up for us as he has broken the bars of death, the powers of hell, and the bondage of sin. The Table of the Lord offers us the food of salvation, which sanctifies us and calls us to a diet of Spirit-filled, holy living, marked by the will of God, expressed in God’s holy Word.
The second thing that Paul teaches us about the Lord’s Supper is this: Participation in the Lord’s Supper connects us with the resurrected, ascended Lord Jesus in heaven, and with his people here on earth. We cannot see the Lord Jesus, for he is in heaven. However, the Lord Jesus communicates himself as he indwells Christians all over the world.
We, collectively, form Jesus’ body here on earth. And the Lord’s Supper unites us and makes that grafting or sharing happen. Listen: “Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.” Jesus is the “one loaf.” He is the Bread of life, sent from heaven. By responding to Jesus’ death and resurrection in faith, as signified in our participation of the Lord’s Supper—we become the body of Christ. The Table of the Lord signifies that we are a peculiar, special kind of people—we make up the body of Christ. And that, in turn, has bearing on how we conduct ourselves in daily life.
This, then, is what we learn from Paul about the Table of the Lord: Participation in the Lord’s Supper connects us with Christ’s sacrifice: we share in his death and resurrection. Participation in the Lord’s Supper also bonds us together as a people, marked and set apart, as the church, the body of Christ.
Here’s the “kicker”: participation in the Lord’s Supper extends to all of life. It’s not limited to a liturgical act of worship on Sunday mornings. The Lord’s Supper extends beyond the sanctuary, beyond our homes, into the world: “Flee from idolatry! Do not set your heart on doing evil!” In other words, limit your diet to the menu set before us by God’s Word and Spirit.
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What does that mean? It means that we develop and practice spiritual discernment in all kinds of moral and religious practices in life. Spiritual discernments calls for asking pertinent, tough questions in light of God’s Word. Questions such as these:
· Is participating in gambling activities something that will sanctify or defile my relationship with Christ? Does gambling honor the Lord?
· Is pre-marital sex part of God’s design for us? Is common-law living or co-habitation an expression of God’s will for us today? Or does it defile our bodies and harm our relationship with Christ?
· Is participating in parties with abusive use of alcohol and drugs conducive or helpful in my relationship with Christ? Or does such participation defile my allegiance to Christ and harm my spirit?
· Is the practice of euthanasia, abortion, and transgender manipulation on the menu of God’s Word for us to eat from? Or do these practices belong to the table of the world?
Folks, we
could ask many more questions to ponder in light of God’s Word. This much is
clear: The significance of participation in the Lord’s Supper extends to all of
life. Therefore develop and practice spiritual discernment in all kinds of
moral and religious situations. “Flee from idolatry!” “Do not set your
hearts on doing evil.”
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.