Jacksonville Presbyterian Church
1st Corinthians 10:14-22 (July 7, 2024)
[MUSIC] [MUSIC] >> Will everyone please open their Bibles and turn to first Corinthians 10, 14 through 22. And let's stand for the reading of God's Word. If you need a Bible, please grab a blue hardback Bible, enter to page 1138. Therefore, I am beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as dissensible people, judge for yourselves what I say. The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The blood 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 one bread. Consider the people of Israel, are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar. What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything? Or that the idol is anything? No, I imply that what pagan sacrifice they offer to demons, and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and of the table of demons. Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? Friends, the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of the Lord endures forever. This is the word of the Lord. Amen, brothers and sisters, if you would please be seated and keep that Bible and your heart open as we pray now. Father, we thank you for the truth that your word gives to us. Lord, we thank you for communion, Lord, that spiritual food and drink that sustains us through the wilderness of this life. Father, we pray that you would give us the mind of Christ right now to understand your word, and Lord, that it would guide us in our lives this week. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Friend, could you go, I mean, let's be honest, could you go the rest of your life and never take communion again? Would you be just fine if you never took communion again? What's interesting to me is when I talk to Christians today, a lot of them see communion or maybe baptism, these sacraments or ordinances if you prefer that term as sort of just like optional rituals that you can either give or take or partake of or not. You know, I can't help but think this is part of the rise of sort of online church as we forget that communion is meant to be taken in a group of Christians. But if you don't really think communion matters, well, then why does it really matter if you ever go to church again or for that matter? Why does it matter if you ever take communion again? I don't think you have to be, I'm not saying you're a bad Christian if you think this way. My point is, for many of us who are followers of Jesus, we have a blurry understanding of what communion is all about and what it's meant to do in our lives. Is it just a ritual? Or maybe if you come from another version of Christianity, another denomination, maybe you think it really does become Jesus' literal body and blood. There's a lot of confusion around communion, but what I want to suggest to you this morning, if you look down at 1 Corinthians, chapter 10, if you look at our passage this morning, Paul is going to start talking about communion and he's going to really reveal something profound about communion. And I don't want to bury the leader or anything, but what Paul is going to establish in this passage is something spiritual is happening in communion. It's not just a ritual, but neither is this literally physically becoming Christ's body and blood, that both of those are mistakes as to what Paul's actually communicating and what Jesus would have us understand. Maybe think about it this way, when did Jesus inaugurate communion? When did Jesus begin communion? Why did he say that there was a supper in his name? Well, it was the night when he was betrayed. So, consider that for just a second. Jesus is about to be abandoned by his best friends. He's about to die in front of his mother. And this is what he wants you and I to do and to remember. It's more than a ritual. If you think you could go the rest of your Christian life and sort of skip communion, I would encourage you to consider that perhaps you haven't really quite thought enough about communion and how profoundly spiritual it is meant to be in the lives of believers. So, with that in mind, we're going to be talking about communion today, but all of this is couched within 1 Corinthians where Paul is having to address a moral question. So, if you looked at 1 Corinthians, if you've been with us for this year, where we're going through the book of Corinthians, sort of section by section, you may vaguely remember, if you go back a couple of pages, starting in 1 Corinthians 8. If you look at 1 Corinthians 8 verse 1, Paul says those words now concerning. And really, that's a new section of 1 Corinthians being launched before us. Really, chapters 8, 9, 10, and 11, they're all sort of pertaining to this question about can Christians eat meat that's been sacrificed to an idol? Now, if you were here several weeks ago, I jokingly referred to that food as a Zeus burger. So, the Christians were wondering, "Okay, well, if God made the cow, and I'm no longer worshiping Zeus and all these false gods, shouldn't I be able to eat meat sacrificed to the idols?" Well, in some ways, that meat was cheaper, and a lot of Christians were slaves, and so they got the meat in the marketplace that had been sacrificed to an idol, and their argument was, "Well, I'm free in Christ. My righteousness is something that Christ gives to me by faith. What makes me right before God is believing in Jesus Christ as my Savior, not me and my good works, right? They believe the gospel of grace, that to be saved, you have to believe in Jesus as the only means of salvation and righteousness. But then they're asking these sort of moral questions that every Christian has to ask throughout their life. "What am I allowed to do?" You know, you may remember several weeks ago, I jokingly asked you, if Christians could do things like drink alcohol or smoke, and I think the consensus was everyone said no to cigarettes, but maybe to cigars? I think that's what the guy said. I don't think the lady said that. The point is, if you look at 1 Corinthians 8, 9, 10, and 11, Paul is trying to explain the gospel of grace and help them see how to cultivate a Christian conscience in the innumerable moral questions of the day. So they really want to know, Paul, well, can I eat meat, sacrifice to idols? And essentially what Paul is going to do right here in our passage is actually give the final answer to that question, which is, no, idols are not real. There's no such thing as Zeus, right? We believe in one God, but there's more to the story. And although, yes, the meat is fine, Paul's concern is not necessarily the meat. The concern is the idol worship associated with it. So if you want to go into the temple of Zeus where everyone's worshiping Zeus and you are there, they're going to assume, if you eat the Zeus burger, that you're doing what? Worshiping Zeus. What's Paul's point? What's the moral for you and me? Well, it's right there in our passage in verse 14. This is Paul coming to the end of this long discussion, pulling examples from the Old Testament, giving us principles, typological arguments like he went through last week. And here's his point. Look at verse 14. Therefore, my beloved, Paul is reminding every Christian that they are beloved by God and loved by Paul as well. Paul loves these men and women, my beloved. It's how I think about y'all, our church, when I pray for you, beloved Jacksonville Press. Paul's writing as a pastor with a pastoral heart. Therefore, beloved of God, flee from idolatry. Don't do anything that would associate you with idol worship. That's the point. That's the moral. Look at verse 15. He says, I speak as dissensible people, right? And the Bible never asks you for blind faith. It gives you lots of reasons to believe these things, right? Like you should believe in Jesus because he came back from the dead. That's a reason. Now the question is, how can you believe? Well, the Bible says that the Bible never asks you to believe in Jesus because he came back from the dead. That's a reason. Now the question is, how can you believe he came back from the dead? Well, you have to believe that the apostles are telling you the truth, that they really did see him. Look at verse 15. I speak as two sensible people, judge for yourselves what I'm saying. So what is this answer about, you know, meat? And how does this have anything to do with communion? Well, essentially, if you look down, he's going to make a very interesting argument. And he's going to say in verses 16 and 17, I'm going to summarize these real fast, is he says, if you are at the temple of Zeus and you are eating meat sacrificed to Zeus, there is something spiritual happening to you when you do that. You are spiritually communing with demons. So don't do it. You know, this is like the advice I give to people if they go to astrologers, or if they go to palm readers, or if they play within a Ouija board. I'm not saying the Ouija board is magic. What I am saying is, don't do it. The Bible never pretends like demons are not real. The Bible never pretends like the spiritual world is all made up. What the Bible will teach you is that there is a dark world, there is a spiritual reality, and that if you reach out to things, they reach back and they do not let go easily. And his argument is going to be this. For 16 and 17, he says, listen, when you take communion, when you go to the cup of blessing, are you not communing with Jesus himself? Somehow spiritually? That's his point, 16 and 17. He's like, aren't you spiritually linking up to Jesus when you take communion? Something spiritual is happening at communion. And then look at verse 18, he says, consider the people of Israel. Now he's going to give you an example from the Old Testament. Literally his words there are the people of Israel according to the flesh. Kata Sarksay is like what he says in Greek. He said, think about ethnic Israel, the people of the Old Testament. Are they not those who eat the sacrifices? Are they not participants in the altar? What he's saying right there in verse 18, he's like, think about the Old Testament. When people were going to the Levitical priests, when they were going to sacrifices, weren't they communing with God as well? Something spiritual was happening in those sacrifices, just like something spiritual is happening here. And now look at verse 19. If there's something spiritual going on, look at verse 19, what's his answer? He says, what do I imply then? What's my point? That food offered to idols is anything. Am I trying to tell you that the meat is somehow different? No. That's on his point. And he says, and I'm not trying to imply an idol is anything. He's saying there's not a person called Zeus. Those gods are made up, but look at verse 20. Here is what Paul is telling you in me. No, I imply that what pagan sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I don't want you to be participants with demons. This is one of the most profound teachings in the New Testament where it clarifies for you and me that all paths and all religions do not lead to God. That is not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches there is one way to the Father. Jesus has the audacity to claim that there is only one way to the Father. No one comes to the Father except through me. What does Paul say? Look at verse 20. I imply that what pagan sacrifice they offer to demons and not God. Paul is pulling from Deuteronomy 32. If you were to go back in the Old Testament. What Paul is claiming here really is just what the Old Testament teaches in Deuteronomy 32. Moses is giving his final sort of swan song. Literally, it's called the Song of Moses. In Deuteronomy at the end of Moses' life before he passes away, he says this quote. He says, "The Israelites, they stirred God to jealousy, worshiping strange gods. With abominations they provoked God to anger." But then he clarifies in verse 17. Actually, they were sacrificing two demons that were not God to gods they had never known. If you were here last week, what Paul is doing all throughout 1 Corinthians 10 is he's reminding us that all of these Old Testament stories are here for our teaching and warning and correction. The tendency for you and me to hear the truth of God and then say, "Well, I don't like that because that's too narrow, so I'm going to twist it to be something I can agree with." The Bible will call that idolatry. In fact, the Bible will compare that to adultery. Think about it this way. Okay, so let's say you have this beautiful wife and let's say you're bald and over the age, I don't know, 50. You're very handsome, but you're bald and you need glasses and you're over 50. Well, let's say your wife tells you one night, "Hey, I need to go out, I'm doing something." And you come upon her and she's eating dinner with another bald guy over the age of 50. And you're like, "You're having a romantic dinner with another man?" And she said, "Oh, no, he's bald and friendly and over 50, a lot like you." In fact, I was talking to him today and he just reminded me so much of you that I would go out with him as well. You would say, "What?" No, there's only one of me. I don't care if his bald head is shiny like mine, that's not the point. The point is not that we're similar. The point is there's only one of me. Right? The point is, the Bible will say there is one God. His name is Yahweh. And the Bible will claim, amazingly, that he created you for his glory. He created you to live with him forever. He loved you so much that he sent his son to die for you. The Bible says, in 1 John, the message of the Bible is not that we loved God, it's not that we're such great people, it's not that we're better than all these other people, we're shipping all these other gods. The message of the gospel is not that we have loved God, but that God loved us and sent his son Jesus to be the atoning sacrifice, the propitiation for our sins. That's the message of Christianity. And you can know God, be God, not the false gods of this world. You can know the one true God by believing in Jesus of Nazareth. You can know God. That's the message of Christianity. And so if you believe that message, how could you ever go to do anything that would blur the line of where your allegiance lies? Why would you go blur the lines? This is why Paul's answer is yes, technically you are free in Christ because you're not made right with God by doing certain things. So yeah, you can eat the Zeus burger, but why would you? What would you blur that line if your allegiance is to Jesus and the prevailing ethos of your life is all about loving other people, right? So if me going to the Zeus temple makes my brother stumble, I'm never going to do it because the prevailing goal of my life is not my own self-actualization or own self-will, it's to love God and love other people. This is why Paul says verse 14, "Flee from idolatry." I love to be guided by church history because when we talk about believing as we are in a few minutes, when we say the Nicene Creed, we believe in the one holy, Catholic, and apostolic church, and that makes everybody freak out a little bit because we use the word Catholic. But remember, just because other people use words doesn't mean we should abandon them, right? The word Catholic lowers C means universal. So when you believe in the Catholic church, you're not talking about the Roman church, which you will mean by that Christian, when we say that, is we believe that there is one church made up of all believers. It's not just the Presbyterian church. Thank God. There are other Christians all over the planet who worship the one Lord Jesus. That is the catholicity of the church, the universality of the church. It's not just here today in this church or in the Romulians, every church on the planet. It's also the church throughout time. And the reason I like church history is because it teaches us very fascinating things. For instance, one of the earliest Christian documents, you can Google this. You could read it in about 20 minutes. It's called the Diddah K. That's Greek for it, the teaching. And it's the oldest Christian document, not a part of the New Testament. And what's fascinating if you read the Diddah K is it gives things like a prayer to pray before you take communion, a prayer to pray after you take communion. But in that Diddah K, it actually talks about meat sacrificed to idols. It picks up on this same tension. And what do they say? Do they say never eat the meat? No, because that would be legalism. What they say is when it comes to meat sacrificed to idols, be on guard. Watch out. So the answer to this moral question that Paul has sort of been playing with for, you know, three chapters now, which is what can you do in your freedom in Christ? Are you allowed to watch this movie or not? Are you allowed to watch this Netflix show or not? Are you allowed to listen to this music or not? There are innumerable moral questions you have to think about. What Paul's answer is and what the Diddah K would echo is, yeah, you are free in Christ, but be on guard with how you use your freedom in Christ. And definitely don't commit idolatry. Don't do anything that would connect you to the worship of other gods. You know, that's sort of like literally the first commandment, no other gods. Now, that's essentially, you know, sort of like the bookends of this passage. What I want us to focus on today, just very briefly, if we can, and we'll pick up more on this in a few weeks when we get to another section of 1 Corinthians, which is what does this passage teach you and me about communion. Now, look down at verses 16 and 17, because those are the two verses where we learned something fascinating about communion. And remember, Paul's argument is something spiritual does happen in life, whether it's communion or the Old Testament or pagan sacrifices. There is a way for us in this physical world to connect to the spiritual world. But what matters, Christian, is are you communing spiritually? Are you linking up with Jesus or the false gods? And if you're a Christian, your answer is I only want to link up with Jesus. Jesus is my God. So how do we understand communion? Well, if you're taking notes in your scripture journal, which I hope everybody is, or if you don't have it, bring it back next week, I would encourage you to think of communion as these two things. And I'll run through these quickly, and then we'll take communion. But remember, we're about to take communion, so pay attention. When you approach communion, it's not just a ritual. If it was just a ritual, this passage would make no sense. Communion, called the Eucharist in Greek, the Thanksgiving, communion is spiritual food and spiritual drink. And that's language taken from 1 Corinthians chapter 10. This is spiritual food and spiritual drink. The second thing to know about communion, and this is probably the most important thing. And you've got to get this, if communion's ever going to mean anything to you. Communion is covenant renewal. Covenant renewal. What do I mean by spiritual food and drink? Well, if you're here last week, in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, Paul takes a typological, metaphorical reading, if you will, of Old Testament stories as foreshadowings and types of Jesus. If you remember this, the Old Testament God delivers a group of people out of slavery by a redeemer who people tried to kill as he was a baby. And this redeemer of God's people delivers them out of slavery, and then they pass through the what? Remember, they pass through the Red Sea. And then once they get into the wilderness, God provides what for them to sustain them through the wilderness? Spiritual food and spiritual drink. That's what Paul calls it right there in 1 Corinthians 10, 2, and 3. And Paul is going to take a typological reading of that. Who is Moses ultimately pointing towards? Jesus, who redeems us from slavery, not to Egypt, but slavery to sin, and our initiation into that new covenant. What is the initiation right to be linked up to Jesus? We're going to see it next week. It's baptism. That's what going through the Red Sea does, is it initiates you into the baptism, being initiated into the church. But then here's the question to think about Christian. What sustains you through the wilderness of life? And I use those words specifically because in the book of Numbers, the Hebrew name for the book of Numbers is Bob Midsbar in the wilderness. And you can understand your life, Christian, in that way that you are in the wilderness. You have left slavery to the demons and to Satan and to this world. You have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus. Christian, I hope you've been baptized. I hope you know that the Word is there to guide you. But now you are in the wilderness of this life on the way where? To the promised land, to heaven. And Christian, you are going to get there because those whom he has chosen, he has predestinated to be glorified. You can trust Christian that you are going to get to heaven because he predestined you to go there. What a relief. But now, Christian, how do you get through the wilderness? What is the spiritual food and drink? The Bible will say that's what communion is. This is the spiritual food and drink. Just as clearly as manna and water from the rock fed the people through the wilderness, now you today, Christian, are sustained to stay faithful to Jesus through communion. How does that work? Well, let me just finish up with the second point about communion. If you look at the communion table, what I want you to see is the point is not that physically this bread and this cup physically become Jesus' body. We would say that's the wrong understanding. You're pushing the imagery too far. It's not physically Jesus. But if you study the Reformation, many people, when they looked at the communion tables, they pushed so hard against that they said, well, there's nothing physical or spiritual happening at communion. Jesus isn't spiritually present, nor is he physically present. Well, I don't know if you know this. You walked into a Presbyterian church today. So as a Presbyterian minister, we look at communion a particular way. And I think this is how the Bible teaches it, which is no, that's not physically Jesus, but he is spiritually present in a unique way more than a ritual. What you have to see communion doing in your life is Christian, when you come forward to take communion. And the reason we ask you to come forward is because you're testifying to this group of people that you actually believe this stuff. You have to see the communion table as the renewal of your covenant vows before God. It's like celebrating your anniversary. Baptism, you do once because it's your initiation. You can't get remarried to your spouse, but you can do what? Celebrate your anniversary. You can renew your vows to your spouse. The Bible is replete with examples of covenant renewal. The book of Joshua, right, is probably the most famous. Many of you probably have these verses somewhere in your house. Joshua, if you remember, brings the people to the Promised Land, and he tells them you need to renew your covenant vows before God. And he says those famous words, "But as for me in my house, we will serve the Lord." Many of you have that in your home. What a great thing to put over your doorway if you don't have it there already. But as for me in my house, we serve the Lord. We will not serve the world and the gods of this world. We will flee idolatry. That's what they're saying in Joshua. "We will serve the Lord." And the people say, "Yeah, we can do that." And then Joshua is like, "Are you sure?" And they're like, "Yes." And then he says, "It's time to renew the covenant." A covenant is a solemn bond sealed in blood. A covenant is a solemn bond sealed in blood. The sign of the covenant in the Old Testament is circumcision. There was blood, and it was the sign of a solemn bond between God and Israel. The new covenant is a solemn bond between Jesus and us, the church. And there was bloodshed on the cross. And we remember the blood of the new covenant when we partake of the wine. I know this sounds strange, and I don't think anybody has ever read this, and you know, you don't have to. But, you know, the great theology document the Westminster Confession of Faith, which is sort of the summary of Reformed theology, has this thing called the larger catechism, where it's a question and answer about how to live the Christian life. And one of the things that I love about the larger catechism is they recognize that most Christians don't have this overwhelmingly spiritual experience at communion. What are you talking about? This is spiritual dust, and I've never had anything spiritual happen to me. I come down, and then I go back, and my day is the same. Nobody thinks that. The Westminster Confession picks up on this. And they actually give us guidance about how to see whether or not communion is actually doing anything. And actually, this is question number 175. This is so interesting. Because they say, how should you examine yourself after you take communion? What if you don't get anything out of communion? What if it feels like a ritual to you? If you're like, Dustin, I see that Paul thinks something spiritual is happening, but that's not my lived experience. Nothing spiritual has happened to me. What would Westminster tell you? This is their answer. Think about this. Consider if there's any wisdom. You're sensible people. That's what they have to say. It says, after receiving communion, we should think about our participation in the sacrament and whether we got anything out of it. If we have been spiritually renewed and comforted in that participation, we should bless God for it. Pray for the effect to continue. Watch out for relapses. Fulfill our vows and be encouraged to take communion frequently. If on the other hand, we have not received any benefit from our participation, what then? I didn't feel anything. Nothing happened to me, Dustin. This is their answer. We should more carefully go over how we prepared for and participated in the sacrament. If this review reveals no fault in us before God or our conscience, then we should wait for the fruit of participation to come to us in due time. However, if such review finds us at fault, either in preparing for or participating in the sacrament, we must humbly resolve to be more careful and diligent in the future. Friends, how do you prepare to take communion? Again, I would lean on the Westminster Confession, a catechism because I think it has wisdom. And as I read these words, they're actually going to be on the screen. And we're just going to take a few moments of silence to pray and to prepare to take communion. And remember, when you come forward, what you are doing is you are renewing your solemn bond with God. And if you're not willing to renew your covenant vows to worship God alone, friend, I would warn you. Repent, come to the table and serve God alone. Have no other gods. This is how you prepare for communion. They say, we should take specific notice of the Lord's body. So look at the elements and affectionately meditate on His death and sufferings. Christ, for me, you mean God died for me? And that should stir in us a vigorous exercise of our what? Our spiritual gifts. I desire to serve God with all of the spiritual gifts that He has given me. I desire to serve the body of Christ with all of my spiritual gifts. We should earnestly hunger and thirst after Christ. I want God in my life. I want to feed on Him by faith. I want to draw near to His fullness, trusting in His merit. Not my righteousness, but His righteousness. I want to rejoice in His love for me. You really are forgiven and beloved Christian. Rejoice in that. Give thanks for His grace. And when we do it that way, we thereby renew our what? Covenant with God. And we renew our love for all the saints. That is all of the Christians here and throughout time. When we commune, we renew our covenant. Let me finish with this and then we'll go into a time of prayer. The Apostle Paul tells you, Christian, the cup of blessing that we bless. Is it not a participation, a coinonia, a communion in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation, a coinonia, a communion in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body. There is one holy Catholic and apostolic church. Why? Because we all partake of the one bread. We all bow the knee to Jesus. Christian, take the next few moments, repent of sin and renew your commitment to the Lord who loves you. Let's pray. [Music]