All right. So here's the deal. We're going to start a series in Exodus, but I'm of the opinion that context is important. So without starting in Genesis 1-1, Genesis 37 is a great place to start, just to establish how it is that there were ever Israelites in Egypt and why it is that there needed to be in Exodus. So to that end, we'll start in Genesis 37 and try to understand the story of Joseph and his brothers and everything that led to the Hebrews being in Egypt. All right. Genesis chapter 37, beginning at verse 1, says, "Jacob lived in the land of his father's sojournings in the land of Canaan. These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being 17 years old, was pasturing the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bill Ha and Zilpa, his father's wives, will pause there and just know that any excuse to create a diagram, I'm going to seize it. So go ahead and go to the next slide for me. This is helpful to me to understand the sons of Jacob and how they came to be. So you see Jacob at the top there and then you see the four ladies that he interacted with to create the 12, well, will eventually be the 12 tribes of Israel. And I've tried to get Chad GPT to color code them. And lest you be fearful, I did verify that the information was correct. Chad GPT and I have a contentious relationship where he likes to lie to me and make stuff up. And I have to be like, that's not right. And then it goes, oh, you're right. That's not right. But like 30 iterations later, this is what we got to. So noting Jacob's wife, Leah, the first one, was the one that Laban tricked him with. Jacob wanted Rachel and went to work for Laban, his father-in-law for seven years. And he thought he was going to get Rachel after seven years. And then he took his wife to bed. And the next morning, behold, it was Leah. And so he worked for Laban for another seven years and got Rachel. As you can see, the boys, this is just the sons, are listed at the bottom there from left to right, oldest to youngest. So Ruben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah come first from Leah. And Rachel doesn't have any children at this point. So she gives Jacob Bilhah her handmaiden. And from Bilhah, the handmaiden come Dan and Naftali. Then, not to be outdone, Leah gives Jacob her handmaiden, Zilpa, and from Zilpa come Gad and Asher. And then Leah gets two more. After that, she gets Isakar and Zebulun. And poor Rachel has just been pining for children of her own this entire time while ever fertile Leah and her handmaiden are winning the competition by leaps and bounds. But then late in Jacob's life come these two sons by Rachel. Joseph and Benjamin during whose birth Rachel dies. So there's the generations of Jacob in case you weren't sure. It's helpful to me to see it laid out like that so you can understand who belonged to who. They were all sons of Jacob, but Rachel was only responsible for two of them. Moving on in Genesis 37, second half of verse two. Well, we'll read the whole thing. These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph being 17 year old was pasturing the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpa, his father's wives. And Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. Now, Israel, that's Jacob who'd been given a new name, right? Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colors. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him. I need all of us to begin to understand and appreciate something if you don't already. And I don't want to crush your admiration of any of the patriarchs or matriarchs in Scripture unnecessarily, but we need to get it into our heads that no human other than Jesus Christ in all of the Bible is worth really being impressed by or trying to imitate. No other person, not Joseph, not Moses, not Noah, not Adam, there are no heroes in the Scripture. There are none. These are all fallen men and women whose stories we know and from whose examples we can draw things to do and from whose examples we can draw things not to do. And Joseph is no exception. So if you like me based on what we've heard about Joseph just so far in this text, don't like him that much. I don't blame you. I don't like him that much either. He's 17 years old. He's not even the youngest, but it's evident that Jacob likes Joseph more because well at least Joseph didn't kill his mom while he was being born. So I'm not sure what Jacob's attitude towards Benjamin is, but this isn't favoritism just for the youngest, but it's definitely favoritism. This 17 year old punk is a tattle tale. He runs around ratting his brothers out to dad. This is not somebody that you would have particularly liked either. So when it says they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him, I kind of understand why. He's got nicer clothes than them. He's young and Jacob really seems to like him. I also would suggest to you that Jacob's favoritism for Joseph might have been learned behavior. His own father, if you want to just listen, I'll read it to you. In Genesis 25-28 it says Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebecca loved Jacob. So Jacob's parents, Isaac and Rebecca each had a favorite twin. Now Esau technically came out first, so he was the oldest, so he had the birthright, and Jacob came out second. And Isaac loved Esau because Esau produced good meat, which I can appreciate. Rebecca loved Jacob. I don't know. She just had her preferences. Here's what I see. I see the thing that I did when I was growing up into my late teens and began to understand that in fact, sometimes mom and dad are wrong. Sometimes, yeah. Now I was in my teens, so if you're younger than that, that's not true, but as you get older, you begin to learn that they're not perfect, they're not infallible, and they make mistakes, and they probably made mistakes in how they parented you. And so what I did was at 17, probably 18, I was like, "Well, I'm never going to do X, Y or Z to my kids." And I'm never making that mistake. And so you set this thing up in your head as that's failure to parent correctly, and I won't be responsible for that behavior. And usually what then happens when your own kids start to come into the world is whatever they did, you do the opposite. So if you were spanked, "Well, we're not going to spank in my house," or if you weren't while we are, you just pick the other direction and go sin that way instead of the way that your parents failed and sinned. So I look at Jacob and his favoritism for Joseph, and I just can't help but wonder, did he grow up wishing his dad loved him the most and go, "Well, I'm definitely not going to favor my oldest." And then end up favoring the younger. I mean, Joseph was on the earth for a few years before Benjamin came along, so he was at least the youngest for a little while. It's not uncommon for us to make decisions about how we will not parent based on things we did enjoy about our parents' style and then make precisely the wrong adjustments. Jacob's favoritism led to, I think, bolstering the rivalry between the other brothers. Like, siblings have rivalry without any help from the parents. When parents, like, stoke the flames of that, that's really bad. So resolve parents, you might have a favorite, but resolve to make sure that your children are never certain who it is. Do whatever you have to do to withhold that information from them. And then when they get older, I mean, they'll have their suspicions, right? You guys, you're pulling back like the things that I'm saying are not just towers of truth. They are. No matter what, never pit your children against one another. Now, Joseph had a dream, verse 5. Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. He said to them, "Here this dream that I've dreamed. Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and my sheaf arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf." His brothers said to him, "Are you indeed to reign over us? Are you indeed to rule over us?" So they hated him even more for his dreams and his words. Binding sheaves, for those of you who don't know, is just, it's just tying together bundles of grain. That's all this Bible fancy speak for taking stocks of grain and tying them together. So Joseph has this dream where him and the, he and the other boys are all doing agricultural work and tying together the, and suddenly the sheaves spring to life and his sheaves sits upright and their sheaves all bow down in reverence and worship. And for some reason, Joseph thinks, "You know what? The brothers really need to hear about this dream that I've had. It's just a dream. It's not my fault that I had it. I'm just going to share it with them for awareness." And not surprisingly, the outcome is they hated him even more. If it seems like Joseph is insinuating that he's superior to his brothers based upon a dream, that's because he is. It's exactly what he's doing. And he had his dad's help to think that way. Where are their colorful coats? They don't have them. And while Joseph isn't responsible for the dream, we'll see as we roll along that it was prophetic, but we don't know that yet. He doesn't know that yet. There isn't much wisdom in the way he chooses to share it with his brothers who already despise him. So Proverbs 12, 23 says, "A prudent man conceals knowledge, but the heart of fools proclaims folly." Proverbs 13, 3, "Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life, but he opens wide his lips, comes to ruin." Listen, this Christianese idea that the most moral thing you can do is be completely open and transparent is ridiculous. There is wisdom in keeping your mouth closed at times. You do not have to tell everybody everything or be fearful that you're a liar if you don't. Don't lie, but you don't have to say everything out loud. Verse 9, Genesis 37, "Then he dreamed another dream." Oh boy, told it to his brothers and said, "Behold, gather round. I've dreamed another dream. The sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me. When he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, "What is this dream you've dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you? And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind." I don't know if this is worth talking about, but in verse 11 where it says, "His brothers were jealous of him." Most of that text is added. It's not in the original translation, but it's everywhere implied. And when I think Stephen gives his defense to the faith and acts, he identifies that there was envy on the part of Joseph's brothers here. It doesn't say that explicitly in verse 11 though. It just says, "His brothers and his father kept the saying in mind." This dream is fun because it's astronomical as opposed to agricultural. And the interpretation of the dream isn't clear. There's two things I find really interesting here. First of all, we now don't know whether Benjamin has been born yet. His birth and the death of Rachel has already been described a couple of chapters ago. I think it's in Genesis 35. But now, Jacob identifies Joseph's mother with the moon and himself with the son and says, "Oh, your mother and I are going to bow down to you too, Joseph." And there's a rebuke there suggesting that maybe Benjamin hasn't been born yet. Maybe Rachel is still alive. I don't know, and it's hard to piece these things together clearly because Genesis is not necessarily chronological. So you'll get these genealogical accounts of births and deaths, and then you'll get a story about people that the Bible just told you were already dead. We don't know if Benjamin's alive yet. I think that he was. I think that Rachel was already gone, but it's just not clear. And the interpretation of this dream isn't entirely clear. I find it entertaining that Jacob assumes that he's the son and Joseph's mother is the moon. I would have done the same thing. The interpretation of dreams will become really important to this story. So maybe we should talk about dreams and their significance. The Bible has both old and new testament examples of dreams being prophetic or revelatory. It doesn't mean that all dreams are, and I would caution all Christians to be careful about being overly obsessed with whatever you dreamed last night because it might like Ebenezer when he has the vision in a Christmas carol of Marley. And he says, "You might just be a bit of undigested meat from dinner last night." I mean, we really don't really know what's going on. The fact that you're subconscious can create things that you don't know about while you're asleep is kind of amazing. And so I understand why people get mystical about it and start buying dream interpretation books or whatever. I would caution you to avoid that. This narrative begins with dreams and they'll continue to be important. If you go read the book of Daniel, obviously dreams are pretty important in the book of Daniel and the Israelites in the midst of their exile. And Matthew 1, Joseph has a dream where the angel of the Lord lets him know to go ahead and wed, marry, or stay with her. And then he has a dream where he's warned to flee to Egypt to get away from Herod. So there are some new testament examples. But listen to this, this is Ecclesiastes 5, 3, we'll look at 3 and 7. A dream comes with much business and a fool's voice with many words. When dreams increase and words grow many, there is vanity, but God is the one you must fear. Let me read that again. All right, on the subject of dreams, here's the rank and priority of a dream. Pay attention. Dreams come with much busyness and a fool's voice with many words. So he's comparing the two things. A dream in all of its busyness, all the craziness of a dream, and a fool in all of his words might have something approaching the same value, generally speaking. For when dreams increase and words grow many, there's vanity, but God is the one you must fear. And then in Jeremiah 23, 25, I have heard what the prophets have said, who prophesied lies in my name, saying, I've dreamed, I've dreamed. How long will there be lies in the heart of the prophet who prophesied lies, who prophesied the deceit of their own heart, who think to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, even as their fathers forgot my name for bales. Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let him who has my words speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat declares the Lord. It's not my word like fire declares God, like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces. Therefore behold, I'm against the prophets who steal my words from one another. Behold, I'm against the prophets declares the Lord who use their tongues and declare thus says the Lord. Behold, I'm against those who prophesy lying dreams and who tell them and lead my people astray by their lies and their recklessness when I did not send them or charge them. So they do not profit this people at all, declares the Lord. Your dreams, your dreams, however significant they are, must be yielded, which means brought into subservience to the word of God. The word of God is is greater than your most profound and prophetic dream that you've ever dreamed. Let us never become a church which runs around telling one another that the Lord gave me a word for you in a dream last night unless it happens to be entirely consistent with what's been clearly revealed in Scripture. I'm not saying dreams are of no value. I'm saying they must be subservient to the word of God. Amen? Genesis 37, 12. Now as brothers went to pasture their father's flock near Shechem and Israel said to Joseph, or not your brother's pastoring the flock at Shechem, come, I'll send you to them. And they said, here I am. So Joseph said to him, go, see if it is well with your brothers and with the flock and bring me word. So he sent him from the valley of Hebron and he came to Shechem and man found him wandering in the fields and the man asked him, what are you seeking? I'm seeking my brothers, he said. Tell me, please, where are they pasturing the flock? And the man said, they have gone away for I heard them say, let us go to Dothan. So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan. They saw him from afar and before he came to them, they conspired against him to kill him. They said to one another, here comes the dreamer. You have to appreciate the nickname. And then parents, I don't think it's wise to send your children to spy on one another. Especially if one of them's already got a little bit of a reputation as a tattle tale. Verse 20, come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. Gee whiz. That's a bit much. See what envy and jealousy can do in your heart? Then we will say that a fierce animal has devoured him and we will see what becomes of his dreams. Rubin heard it and rescued him out of their hands saying, let's not, let's not take his life. And Rubin said to them, shed no blood, throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but don't lay a hand on him. And he said this that he might rescue him out of their hand to restore him to his father. So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colors that he wore, and they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty. There was no water in it. So credit Rubin for having a conscience here. That's good. Previously, he did not. If you're older, you can go look at Genesis 35-22 to see what I'm talking about. But I think realizing that he could easily join Joseph in an early grave, if he opposes his brother's plan outright, Rubin comes up with a little bit more underhanded approach to, yeah, let's not kill him. Just throw him in the well. And in his mind, he's like, that'll satisfy their blood lust. I can come back later and rescue Joseph out of the well. Now, the absence of any dialogue, the fact that we don't get, and then Joseph, as they were beating him, hollered out and said this, we don't have any of that, might lead you to think that there wasn't any. Genesis 42 gives us a little perspective on what else happened here. Listen to Genesis 42-21. Then they said to one another, "In truth, we are guilty concerning our brother, and that we saw the distress of his soul when he begged us and we did not listen." That's why this distress has come upon us. And Rubin answered them, "Did I not tell you not to sin against the boy, but you did not listen?" So now here comes a reckoning for his blood. After Joseph is reunited with his brothers in a few chapters, but before they're aware that he's still alive, we get a picture of what this scheme did to Rubin's conscience. He was bothered by this. Let's see what happens. 37-25, and they sat down to eat. Nothing like throwing your little brother into a well to work up an appetite. And looking up, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead with their camels bearing gum, balm, and murr on their way to carry it down to Egypt. Then Judah said to his brothers, "Wait, wait, guys, what profit is that if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Let's sell him to the Ishmaelites and let not our hand be upon him, for he's our brother, our own flesh." And his brothers listened to him. Then Midianite traders passed by, and they drew Joseph up, lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for 20 shekels of silver. They took Joseph to Egypt. All right, a few principles we can draw out from this. First of all, when you are in the pit, and if you're not right now, you will be eventually, so to speak, in the pit, in the well, when you're in there, or when you were in there and then you got pulled up out of the pit and sold into slavery. The next time that happens to you, so to speak, the thing that you don't know is they actually wanted to kill you and the Lord preserved you. You don't know that. We always think whatever bad things happen to us, we don't always, but we tend to think, "This is the worst." Meanwhile, God in heaven is going, "It's nowhere near the worst." They wanted far worse for you, and I've preserved you, I intervened. When you're in the pit and they wanted you dead, it's usually worth asking yourself if they might have been justified even a little bit. This is why I'm telling you, and you all seem uncomfortable, so just know as a younger brother, "I'm going to go even harder." The more uncomfortable you seem with what I'm saying, the more I'm going to steer into it. Joseph was not just so godly and upright that his brothers despised him. He was a punk. He was a tattle-tail. He was dad's favorite, and he inflamed their frustration with his stories about his dreams that he didn't need to tell them. So he didn't help this situation. I'm not saying he deserved to be sold in this slavery. I'm not saying his brothers were right to want to murder him, but understand sometimes we make things that are already bad way worse by celebrating ourselves in the middle of it. Joseph needed wisdom. There's a tendency toward, I think, two opposing errors when we interpret the providence of God. And by the providence of God, I mean our circumstances, that God has decreed these things are going to happen. I watched the debate, for instance, and four minutes in, Lisa can tell you, "I wanted to turn it off," and she made me leave it on because she couldn't get enough evidently of a raving lunatic on one side and an absolute diabolical madwoman on the other side, just nothing of substance being discussed other than who wants to kill babies earliest. It was so frustrating to me to sit there and think, "This is like countries rise and countries fall. I'm not an imperialist. I don't think that God loves America more than any other country or ever has, but this is where I was born, and I love this land, and watching it fall to pieces is kind of discouraging for me. I don't know if you all feel that way." And thinking that our hope is Donald Trump would be even more discouraging if you're honest and you watch that debate because while I probably agree in substance with a lot of what he said, he certainly didn't convince anybody that didn't already like him to start liking him. So it's like, "God, what is going on?" And then so there's two errors. We might assume when your circumstances are difficult, you lose your job, the house burns down, whatever you need the example to be. Error number one, if you're a Christian, everybody with me, house just burned down. Error number one, this is the wrath and judgment of God on me for my remaining sin. That's why this bad thing is happening. Error number two, we might assume that we're suffering for righteousness. The house is burned down because I'm such a great Christian. The devil had to oppose me somehow or some neighbor that can't stand my righteousness lit it on fire. Those are the two errors that I think we tend to run into when our circumstances are difficult. In John 9, right at the outset of this, one of my favorite stories in all the Gospels, the disciples in Jesus are walking along and they see a man who was blind from birth and the Bible tells us they knew he was blind from birth. And so the disciples asked Jesus, "Hey, Jesus, whose sin was it this man or his parents that he was blind from birth?" Because they find it hard to imagine how an infant could have sinned in such a way that it would be blind from birth. They imagine, you know, maybe it was his mom and dad or one or the other that sinned. And Jesus says, "It wasn't that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed. It had nothing to do with wrath and judgment. It had nothing to do with his parents. We're so Christian that they were persecuted and so their kid was blinded." I suspect Joseph needed to learn some things about himself. I think that's a big part of what happens here. And as is so often the case with us, we learn better. Don't wait through pain and sorrow and suffering than we usually do when we're like in the valleys of pleasure. Oh, okay, I thought maybe I needed to back up there. On the other hand, don't miss the spiritualization that the boys engage in here because that's really interesting too. He's our brother, so it would be wicked to kill him. Let's just throw him in a pit instead. And then, wait a minute, we're not even making any money off of this. Let's sell him into slavery where he will just as likely die as if we'd killed him. But because we won't be the direct authors of his death, that's more moral. Behold yourself in Scripture, right? Don't congratulate yourself for being less evil than you might have been. Well, at least I didn't fill in the blank. Okay. Nor view it as proof of your spirituality that you weren't the direct cause of an evil outcome. 29, 37, 29, when Ruben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph wasn't in it, he tore his clothes and returned to his brothers and said, "The boy is gone, and I, where shall I go?" So here again, we're left to assume some things. Number one, Ruben wasn't around when Judah suggested they sell Joseph and make a little money for their troubles. That's obvious. He wasn't part of that conversation. Ruben comes back after the rest of the boys move on, evidently planning to rescue Joseph and he discovers that he's gone. So he confronts his brothers with the news and says, "Hey, Joseph's not in there." Evidently, they still don't tell him anything about the Midianite slavers. Can't prove it, but it doesn't look like they do. There's nothing in Genesis to suggest that Ruben ever knew Joseph was still alive. And I suspect that what happens next leaves deep marks on Ruben's conscience because those marks drive him to some dark places. Note to yourself, please, a tormented conscience can make you do some pretty gross things. A tormented conscience can drive you into grosser and grosser sins. Now, there is a solution to a tormented conscience, but Ruben's actions indicate he rejects the solution. What's the solution? First John 1, 9. Before that, 8, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth isn't in us. But if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Look right at me. That doesn't mean no consequences. It means forgiveness and no eternal consequences. But Ruben at any point could have gotten off this train. 37-31, they took Joseph's robe and slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in blood. They sent the robe of many colors and brought it to their father and said, This we have found. Please identify whether it is your son's robe or not. He identified it and said, It is my son's robe. A fierce animal has devoured him. Joseph is without doubt torn to pieces. Then Jacob tore his garments, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days. All his sons and his daughter rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and said, Nope. Nope. I'll go to the grave to my son morning. Thus his father wept for him. Meanwhile, the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard. He got to love the sense of humor that the Lord has in the way that he reveals these things to us. Jacob, as soon as he figures out it's the coat of many colors, he says, These absolute things. It's my son's robe. A fierce animal devoured him. Joseph is without doubt torn to pieces. Then he refuses to be comforted and says, Out loud, I'll go to my grave before I see my son again. Meanwhile, the Midianites had sold him in Egypt. Nothing that Jacob just said is true. This is us. Your heart goes out to Jacob, but this should feel familiar. Genesis 27 tells us the story of Rebecca and Jacob deceiving Isaac by using the skin of a goat to trick old blind Isaac into believing that he was blessing Esau. Esau was real hairy and just a rough neck of a man. To steal the birthright, to steal the blessing of Isaac, his mom wraps him in goat's hair and sends him in and his father feels him and goes, Yeah, that's definitely you, Esau. How ironic then that Jacob is deceived about his own son's demise by the blood of the same animal he used to deceive his father. But all he thinks is woe is me. And I'm absolutely certain that Joseph's dead. I'll never see him again. He's been deceived in the same way that he deceived his own father. Sometimes God waits decades to prune us or to teach us a particular lesson. Now the good news is his discipline is never vengeful or hateful, but is faithful and effective. His goal is your sanctification. Therefore, your circumstances are ultimately never evil. But decades later, Jacob has this experience. And if he ever before he went to heaven found out what his sons did, there'd have to be a part of him that was like, oh, that sounds familiar. There'd have to be if he's honest. You guys use the remains of a dead goat to trick me. I can't get that mad. And here's the Lord in Romans 828. We know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Those who me for knew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. Jacob is sure of the outcome and his own misery. And many times in life, I think we're sure of how things are going to turn out, but we don't know and we shouldn't act like we do. Psalm 31, 15, the psalmist says, "My times are in your hand. Rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from my persecutors." 1 Corinthians 2, 9. Paul says, "As it is written, what no eye has seen nor ear heard nor the heart of man imagined, that's what God has prepared for those who love him. Your future belongs to the one who died to redeem you, not anyone on earth. Your future belongs to the one who died to redeem you. It does not belong to anyone on earth. My boss is opposing me and keeping me from your future belongs to the one who died to redeem you, not your boss. Your future belongs to the one who died to redeem you, not Pharaoh, not Kamala, not anybody else, belongs to God. He will decide what's going to happen to you and he has promised, "I'm going to cause all things to work together for the good of those who love me and trust me." Now that may not be good in the financial wealth sense. It may not be good in the temporary physical health sense, but it's definitely good in the ultimate sense. I'm going to pass out of this life and I'm going to go into a life to come that's forever. So all my hope isn't hung on this life, on this healthy body, on this healthy checking account. My hope is fixated on what is yet to come. And so what that does is it encourages my heart when I want to be like, " no, he's dead. I'm sure of it." How many times have you been sure of it and then you were wrong? All the time, right? Things may appear dark and foreboding, but just wait and see what God will do as we make our way through the rest of this story in the coming weeks. All right, I'm going to pray and then I'll turn it over to Mr. Mathison to lead us in the Lord's Supper devotional. Pray with me. God, we ask Your mercy and we thank You, Lord, for Your Son, who You crucified so that we can presume to get Your mercy. In Jesus' name, amen. If you want, turn to 1 Corinthians 11, 17. I'm going to read till the end of the chapter, so it's a bit. But in the following instructions, I do not commend you because you come together, not for the better, but for the worse. For in the first place when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and I believe in part there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. When you come together, it is not the Lord's Supper that you eat. For eating, one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. What? Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the Church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What will I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not. For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when He was betrayed took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you." Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, he took the cup after Supper sang, "The cup is the new covenant of my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat the bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes." Whoever therefore eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and the blood of the Lord. Let the person examine himself then, and so eat the bread and drink the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment to himself. That this is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we have judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, so that when you come together, it will not be for judgment about other things I have. I will give direction when I come. All right, so I'm going to touch on a few things in this. It's a lot, and I'm not going to try to unpack the whole thing. One of the things that I hope to do is encourage Christians in their faith and maybe discourage the heathen in their sin. But we'll start a little bit talking about the warning given and the behavior excited as an example in the beginning of this. And the reason I wanted to kind of draw attention to that is, well, it's a slightly strange thing that we're about to do in terms of humanity and in normal social context and interaction with people. None of us are Taoist or Eastern religion, so we don't offer drinking food offerings to our dead. We don't pour one out for our fallen homies. So it is a little strange, and in that, we're given some instruction as to why we're doing it. It's a reminder to us Christians. That we need to remember Christ, and we are proclaiming His death. That is why we do it. And then we're told right out of the gate what eating and drinking in an unworthy manner is. And the reason I also bring this up is because I have heard over my years many things about what eating and drinking in an unworthy manner is. And as I was considering this and reading this passage, it was very evident to me that we have anecdotal evidence here of what eating and drinking in an unworthy manner is. It does not say what beyond this it is or it is not. So it sounded like in Corinth, there were some people feasting on their own and getting drunk at church. That's pretty undignified. It's pretty unworthy. It's not the Lord's Supper. And I suppose in an effort to dispel some mysticism around what we do, I was reading a little bit further on why and why not, which led me to a bunch of words with way too many prefixes and suffixes and a lot of argument from our paper friends, and then counter arguments from our reform friends. And it also occurred to me that all of this is pointing back to my original concern in eating and drinking in an unworthy manner. And that if you leave it undefined, which Paul did not, I think for our instruction, if you leave that undefined, then what you do is you get, well, you leave the door open for a lot of Pharisaical law, which then allows somebody else to define for you what you're doing this for and what the manner is and that you're doing it. So in touching on that, that takes us again to, and it takes Paul in the sequence of events to reminding us what we're doing at four Christians, a remembering Christ. We're remembering his broken body and that was for us. We're remembering his blood, which is the new covenant for us. Beyond that, any mystical or superstitious pre-elections we're drawn to, any extra blessing we think we get out of it. And if you do achieve some sort of higher plan, I'm not going to argue with that, but that is not instructed in the biblical narrative. That is for you. It's a blessing from God, for you. We're instructed to do this, to cause us to call to remembrance, which also then causes us and should cause us to raise an Ebenezer and to be praiseful for what we have considered about ourselves and about what he did. So in that, it is written for Christians if you're not a Christian and you don't have a call to remember what God has done for you, then they're not going to get anything out of doing it. Maybe a little extra. I think there are a lot of religious nominal Christians that participate in this and we don't see a proclamation of exercise judgment against them in this passage. So while I would say it is unwise to tempt the Lord if you are unconverted, let the cup pass. It's also, like I said, it's a little strange. You have nothing to gain from this if you do not have a participatory relationship with Christ. With that being said, Christian, if you have business to do with God, do your business with God. There is nothing in this passage that says, if you have remaining sin, if there is something that breaks your heart, there's nothing that says you're unworthy. You are remembering what Christ did. Let's pray. Father God, thank you so much for your Son. Thank you for the sacrifice that he made. Thank you for the mercy you have bestowed upon us. I pray that you would bless this time around your table and that you would bless the people that are drawn to it. I ask these things in Jesus' name. - Amen.
