For I have received from the Lord that which I also delivered unto 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 ye drink it, in remembrance of Me." For as often as ye 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 should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.

Now over the many years that we have shared the communion service together it’s been our desire to search out the great truths that surround this marvelous moment. Most of us can understand much of the admonition that Paul gave to the Corinthian church. We have wrestled, some of us at times, with that word he that partakes unworthy. We've learned that's not a noun that's an adverb and it does not describe state, but it does describe in attitude and there's no way any of us are worthy. We are sinners. Our worthiness is determined by our relationship to Jesus Christ, and so the word worthily really speaks of an attitude of coming in deep respect and love and adoration to our wonderful Christ. But there's a phrase where Paul says that if we eat and drink unworthily we drink a judgment to ourselves not discerning the Lord's body. What did he mean by that phrase, not discerning the Lord's body? Well I did considerable research this week on that phrase and it's interesting, there are a multiple number of interpretations. One by Mr. Lenski, a great theologian, he says that the discerning, or understanding, or judging, or estimating, or evaluating that's made up in that word discern is related to the supper itself. In other words, the object is the supper, and what he is saying is there must be a proper evaluation, there must be a proper estimate, a sacredness, there must be a proper approach to communion, that being like unto the body of Christ. But many other translators say, well, throughout the Scriptures the reference to a body often has reference to the body of believers, and therefore what Paul may have, and most likely was talking about, is the reference of believers understanding and evaluating and properly fulfilling their role within the body of Christ. And that could most likely be the proper interpretation because remember in this whole setting of his admonition, Paul is correcting a terrible problem over at Corinth. I mean, the wealthy had brought their sack lunches, box lunches, to church and in the early times of the church there were two suppers. There was the family supper and that usually was the only meal that a slave really could look forward to once a week. That would be his main meal, and so ate. The entire congregation ate together. Then followed the communion service and Paul had to correct this whole matter of the rich neglecting the poor, and there was a great division there was a great imbalance in that body of believers there at Corinth. And so what Paul is saying is, it is something that we're all responsible for and that is to properly see ourselves as accountable to one another in the body of Christ, to discern the body is to understand my relationship to you and my responsibility to you, and your responsibility to me as part of the family.

When I discern my role as a father within our family I understand my responsibilities and what I owe to my children and how I should conduct myself. I discern my, I evaluate my, I estimate, I consider my responsibility within the context of the family. Now we don't live our Christianity in isolation. You can do it. I'm your brother and you’re my brother and my sister. And Paul says when one hurts we all hurt, when one rejoices we all rejoice, and thus to discern the body is to understand and respond to my duties and my concerns for my brothers and sisters in Christ. Sometimes we fail in that. We hurry through live and we neglect the family of believers. Now it goes a little deeper. If I discern my responsibility to those within the church family then I must understand my responsibility of caring, and loving, and forgiving. So I can't come to the table and have any hatred in my heart or unforgiveness, because if I do I'm not discerning the fact that I have a responsibility to forgive. And if I override that responsibility and participate I'm violating then the table, and I am participating unworthily. Now this is where it gets real down personal. Oft times at this moment we send the Spirit of God dealing with us that there's something in our lives we need to take care of, and we can just kind of smother that over and hypocritically go ahead and take communion and do nothing about it, but there comes a time when the Spirit of God does not work with us anymore on that issue.

There's a flower I'll tell you about that grows in South America and it's called the touching flower. You can touch the petals and it will immediately close, and after little while it will slowly open back up. You can touch it again and it will close just a little slower, and then after a while it will open back up. You can touch it again and the more you touch it the slower it closes, and the slower it opens. You can touch it to death. In just a matter of minutes that flower will wilt on the stem and die because you touched it to death. I often think of that in terms of our own hearts. God can touch us with truth and conviction and we sometimes can close ultimately the touch does not affect us anymore. That's the thing that Paul was most likely saying. You can come here, Sunday after Sunday, you can bring your sack lunch, you can neglect the folks, you can totally miss your responsibilities to one another and ultimately you come to a point where communion is just simply an act, because the thing that this moment should bring us to is forgiveness and cleansing. We've so covered that and we've so protected that little sin. We can go ahead and have our communion and never have any deep meaning in it. So you see there's a joyous side of communion, but really there's a sacred side, isn't there? You and I are brothers and sisters in Christ. We owe each other love, forgiveness, caring, concern. We are not isolated, and to discern the body is to see myself as accountable to those within the body of Christ and to so live my life throughout the week that whatever I do I bring honor to Christ. You know I sense that as your pastor I feel like I'm always on display, and that's fine because wherever I go to the community I want it to be said that in all of my actions, my words, that I acted like a Christian and that for you, my church family, I brought you honor and I brought my Christ honor. That's discerning, that's understanding, that's holding ourselves accountable, that is properly estimating my place in the body of believers and the communion pulls us to that central truth. Isn't it true, when you sit down to supper table and all the family is here you feel that oneness, that sense of love and concern? It should be the same thing at our table. Let's kneel together, shall we?

Lord Jesus we this morning come before You and so often we just kind of live our Christianity and individual apart from any sense of responsibility to the Christian family. Would You forgive us Lord Jesus for our negligence and our lack of concern for one another. Would You help us to be more sensitive, and more loving, and more forgiving, and more gracious to one another? Help us to see our role as part of this great family. Thank you for this table Lord Jesus that brings us to this remembrance today. We've come from all walks of life. We've left our offices, and we left our jobs, and we've left our homes, and here we are. We're a family and You are Lord Jesus our head, and we thank you for this gathering today. Let's take the bread together, shall we? And then the cup. My prayer Lord Jesus is that there's such a oneness between us and such a love that flows that all the world will know that we're Your disciples because we love one another. That's my prayer dear Jesus. And everybody said, amen. Let's stand and greet one another, shall we?