I don't feel worthy

Communion Message
(I don't feel worthy)
March 25-26, 2000
Pastor Donald Sheley

For I have received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me." In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as oft as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes. Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world. Therefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another.

Now, most of you folks have shared this experience with us. Many of you may be new today, but in our church we have communion every Sunday, and I'm sure that because there's such a variety of varied background of our religious experiences, for many it's a new thing as an evangelical to participate in communion every Sunday. And therefore this prompts questions sometimes in our registration form. Last Sunday a lovely lady wrote to me and said, Pastor, would you explain the word 'worthy' and 'unworthy' and how it relates to this whole matter of the communion service? So I took time to write a considerable lengthy letter, but I felt that because we have so many new people that join with us just an explanation of our philosophy, our approach to this whole matter of communion.

When she asked the question, what does, how does the word 'worthy' or 'unworthy', how does it applied to our participation in the communion? It really brought to memory my childhood days because I had made some very interesting observations about the communion, and I had some frustrations as a little guy. First of all, I always wondered why they left the communion service to the end of a service, and they only had it once a month if the Pastor remembered that that was the first Sunday. It really wasn't of primary importance to him, but then at the end of the service all the sinners were asked to leave and only the saints were there, and there were just a mighty small few. And then sitting there at times watching people who I thought should participate but didn't, even my own Sunday School teacher, and so one day this bothered me as a little five-year-old lad and I walked over to the teacher and said, why didn't you take communion today? I still remember her words. I didn't feel worthy. Now that phrase I've heard over and over again, and somehow in the teaching there was implied that you through some mechanism of the brain and whatever else it takes you work yourself into this disposition that now I'm worthy, pass me the communion. Sometimes they'd sing a song half a dozen times and give people time to get worthy, and I'm not trying to be facetious, but that was the implied. That was the implied.

Then as I grew up I realized that was a total misinterpretation of the Scripture. The word 'worthy' is not a noun it's an adverb. It doesn't describe spiritual state or status what it does describe is an attitude in the way I take the communion. Do you notice in the reading today, he that participates in an unworthy manner? And what has happened is somehow, you know, some of us came from backgrounds where we had to go to a confession on Saturday evening before we qualified for the communion, or you had to do something, you had to join the church, or you had to do something. I mean the church has always put its theological fences around this table and they tell you when the gate is open. And they tell you who can participate and who can't.

Some time ago one of our families was traveling in the Southland down in the Bible Belt and they came to a church and wanted to have communion, and when it was being passed out they said, you're not a member of this church, you can't participate. So one of my lovely families was excluded from the communion because the requirement of that church is you be a local member before you're allowed to partake. This whole idea of worthy, do I qualify? And I've often said, ladies and gentlemen, one of the greatest acts of thievery in history has been when the church stole the table from the Lord. Because every church, every denomination, wants to put stakes or wants to put requirements around this table, and every preacher thinks that he's got to defend this table. I don't have to. This is not the church's table. This table does not belong to any church nor any denomination. This is the Lord's Table, and He sets the requirements.

But you say Pastor, shouldn't you really protect it? No, I don't have to. That's why Paul left for us those instructions. He said many of you have misused this table and as the result some of you have died and some of you are sick. In other words he's saying, God watches over His table, and if it's approached in an unworthy manner He'll take care of the judgment. The preacher doesn't have to, nor the church doesn't have to. So that frees me. We take down all the fences. And this table represents Jesus Christ who died for all of us. It represents His love and His mercy and His grace, and this table was not meant for saints. It was meant for sinners, and I'm a sinner, and so are you. So in that we're all sinners the exclusion only is attached to those who don't reverence this table and see it for its eternal worth. That's participating unworthily. That's taking this moment and making light of it. That's showing disregard for the solemnity and the sacredness of this moment. That's what was happening back in Corinth, and that's why they were dying because they were misusing, they were coming to the table not recognizing it nor discerning the meaning of the table.

So that allows us here to say, whosoever will may come. That's what Jesus said. That's His love. That's the invitation of the gospel. You can be the worst sinner today, but if you're here and you're reaching out for God. You don't know how to define Him. You may not understand much about Him. Your religious terminology may be exceedingly limited, but this one thing you know, deep in your heart you want God. Then you qualify, and you can kneel with us then you can say God, I'm here in this church this morning, I don't know why, but I tell You one thing, my heart's wide open and I want You to reveal Yourself to me because I want to know You. I'll tell you, it'll be a glorious moment on your knees today.

You remember last week I told you of the lovely lady who was on Saturday night at our service standing right back there in the aisle? Fifteen minutes before service the sanctuary is quiet and empty, and she's standing there crying. I told you about it. And I went back to her and I said, little lady is there something I can help you with? And in essence she said, I'm a sinner and as need to confess my sins. She said is there someplace I can do this? So I took her in that little hallway back on the other side of the mall, a couple of chairs were there, and we sat down and she just poured out her heart, a life of sin and shame, and her face showed the marks of its pain and its guilt. Through her tears and her running mascara, she looked at me and said, do you think Jesus would forgive me? I said yes He would. So we prayed. She had a little Bible there she'd brought along someone had given to her years ago. I showed her in the Scripture, the Bible says if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. She said, He will really do that? I said exactly right. That's what this table represents, God's forgiveness. So she came into service and partook of communion.

Well last evening something interesting happened. I saw this new lady sitting right over here, and I walked up to her and I shook her hand, and I said, you're new with us this evening? She looked up at me all smiles, no, I'm the lady you prayed with last Saturday. And I took her hand, her countenance was changed. The strain was, I'll tell you, I did not recognize and she's a beautiful gal, I did not recognize her because God has this week done some marvelous things in her heart and her life, and through her joy her eyes were sparkling and I said thank God. She came as a sinner, she shared, opened her heart, and it became a wonderful life changing experience. So the reason, if you come to our church and it's different with regards to communion it's because this is not our table. This is the table that represents Jesus' forgiveness, and His love, and His mercy. And if you're looking today for God, you're searching, you just get on your knees with us and say, God, I open my heart to You and I want You to reveal Yourself to me because I want to love You and I want to serve You. And this table is open to whosoever will may come.

Let's kneel together, shall we? Lord Jesus, there's so much about the communion table because we all come from such varied and different religious backgrounds. We've been taught so many different things about the communion table. We've learned this morning that very simply it's Your table. It represents Your love and Your mercy because You said the bread bespeaks of Your body that was given in sacrifice, and the cup Your precious blood that was spilt for our cleansing. Jesus, we come, not because we're worthy, we come because we're needy, we're sinners. There's not a one of us kneeling here that would ever tell the You there's any degree of perfection about us. We all struggled through life to try to be good. Sometimes the fleshly tendencies to sin overtake us and we fall so badly, but we have You to come back to today and to this table. And You promised the very fact that we hold these beautiful simple elements tell us how much You want to forgive us. You died to be our Savior. You died for our sins. You died to forgive us. And all we must do by faith is confess our sins to You and claim the gift of forgiveness, and we do that now. Let's take the bread together. And then the cup. And everybody said, amen. Let's stand and greet one another, shall we?