1 1 Cor. 10:14-22 True Worship Pictured Through the Lord s Supper In John 4 Jesus speaks with a Samaritan woman about true worship. In v. 23 he says to her, But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. All of us worship something because that is the way God made us. But, because of sin and the sin nature that is in all of us, our hearts are idol factories. We worship falsely. Before I came to Christ I worshiped. But, I worshiped the things of this world. Though I would not have denied God and even his Son, my heart was on other things. My devotion was focused on myself, my friends, my things, my plans, etc. My heart was far from God. And, I was not a true worshiper. The 1 st Commandment God gave to Moses says, You shall have no other gods before me. Let me ask, What do we call someone who breaks this command? He/she is an idol worshiper and not a true worshiper. In our passage today, Paul warns the Corinthians (and us) by saying in v. 14, Flee from idolatry. He calls them beloved because they are Christians and he loves them and wants them to know and grow in the truth of the Gospel of Christ. He speaks to them logically with easy words asking them to judge for themselves the truth of his instruction. And then, in vv. 16-22, he begins to speak about the Lord s Supper. And he does this in order to picture for them who is a true worshiper, which according to Jesus, is who the Father is seeking. So how does the Lord s Supper help us under true worship, so we can flee from idolatry? I have 3 truths. 1. True worship is communion with the living God. The context of Paul s command to flee idolatry is clear. Remember, 1 Corinthians is a letter, where Paul is trying to answer their questions. And back in 8:1 he says, Now, concerning food offered to idols... And then he goes on to give them some instructions. You see Corinth was a city full of people who worshipped many gods. From Aphrodite (goddess of love) to Poseidon (god of the seas), to more than 60 other gods I counted, the Corinthians were idolaters to the core. And it was commonplace for the people in Corinth to have feasts dedicated to different gods. You might have one community sacrificing animals and dedicating foods to Aphrodite, while another community sacrificed and dedicated to Poseidon or Zeus, etc. Each was saying to their gods, Please help me with my life. Day in day out, they were having idol banquets. And though these feasts were social events, the people involved were worshipping other gods and something much DEEPER was happening. In order to picture what was going on, Paul turns his attention to the Lord s Supper. Remember our point: True Worship is communion with the living God. In v. 16 he says, The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ. The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ. The KJV says, communion. The word in the Greek is koininia. And it is used 4 times in this passage. And then in v. 17, we read: Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. The word partake is a verb and is really a synonym for participation. So, when we take the Lord s Supper, we have a picture of something that is very real, communion, with Christ (which is essentially communion with God).
2 Now, to commune with someone in the way Paul is using it, is a very serious matter. By using the word partake to describe this communion, Paul is describing a relationship with someone or something. And this is a relationship that involves common interests. It is not like a casual relationship with an old colleague or a classmate with whom you have little in common. It is more like the relationship between husband and wife, who share everything, have much in common like house, cars, bank accounts, children, bedroom, etc. From this perspective, I commune with my wife. I participate with her in the very deepest things of life, unlike any other. When the Corinthians attended these idol feasts that invited various gods to come into their midst and bless them, they were having communion with those gods. (We do the same thing when we invite God to come and be a special part of our meeting. ) Isn t that what Israel did with the golden calf at Mt. Sinai? (This is our context of 10:1-13.) And v. 18 says, Consider the people of Israel: are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar. The original language says, Israel according to the flesh, which can be translated simply as historical Israel. But, I believe in the context Paul is emphasizing Israel s sin (which Paul sometimes refers to in the flesh ); their sin of idolatry, participation, communion with idols in the dessert. With this in mind, Paul is saying to the Corinthians, You can never eat idol food as a casual participant. For when you do, you associate deeply with that idol. And I am sure those who wrote to Paul asking about such things were thinking, It s not that bad. We know there are no such things as gods. We know the true God. After all, our entire neighborhood is taking part. It s just a social gathering. All of our kid s friends are attending. And then Paul goes even further. He agrees there is no such thing physically as gods. But, he does believe in an evil spiritual world. Look at vv. 19-21. What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20 No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. (1 Cor. 10:19 ESV) When you do, you commune with demons, which makes you an idol worshipper and not a true worshipper of the living God. So, in reality, a person who worship idols really worships demons. For they are real. Think about it. Who is the ruler of this world? It is Satan. Who is he? He is a demon. John the Apostle says, Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of the God abides forever. For Christians, as we bless (and give thanks) for the cup and partake of the bread, we picture what it means to be a true worshiper. We commune with the living God. We have fellowship with him. We feed upon HIS food, which is Christ. Fellowship with Christ excludes all other fellowships. There is nothing casual about what we do when we partake of the most beautiful feast called the Lord s Supper. And, there is nothing casual about sin, and every sin breaks the first Commandment: You shall have no other gods before me. True worship is communion with the Living God.
3 2. True worship is communion with other true worshippers (not with those who worship idols). By using the Lord s Supper as his reference, Paul emphasizes the Lord s Supper generates partnership, fellowship, communion with those who also take the Lord s Supper. Notice v. 16: The cup of blessing that WE bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that WE break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ. And then v. 17: Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. I know we do it differently, as we are much larger; Ms. Gunther makes a few loaves. But, in the upper room Jesus took one loaf and broke it into pieces, giving to his disciples. In this picture there is only one loaf, as there is only one true God, one physical body of Jesus that was broken, and later we will see there is only one body of Christ. Paul will develop this them in cps. 11-12. Now, it is the Spirit, not the meal that creates unity among believers. 1 Cor. 12:13 says, For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body Jews or Greeks, slaves or free and all were made to drink of one Spirit. And the meal affirms and reinforces this unity in bringing believers together. Around the table we are Jew and Greek, black and white, Hispanic and black, poor and rich, slave and free. Some of us are so different in our likes and dislikes and in every manner of life. But, in Christ we have communion with one another. And this is true worship. Rev. 5 9-10 we see multitudes of multitudes of multitudes of multitudes of different kinds of people, singing a new song, saying, Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, 10 and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth. In the Corinthian context, Paul is using the Supper to make his point. You see, those idol meals required obligations. Meals were important. And the gods they invoked, at least in their minds, were essential to their needs, which represented their values. Different classes of people, different races of people, different kinds of people within society, tended to bond together around particular gods. And it created interesting difficulties to switch groups. When they did, they were seen as giving allegiance to another. When we take the Lord s Supper, as very different folks from all walks of life, races, classes, etc., we commune with one another as true worshipers of the living God, and those who will be around the throne of God. And we worship God, not demons. We partake of the living God. This is what we share. How would you like to share an ice cream? Pretty neat? Yummy? Well, have you ever shared other things? What about you car? What if you could share a pot of gold with your friend? We could think of bigger things to share. And we could even share such things with unbelievers, right? But what we share with God goes WAY beyond material things, and even emotional things that common experiences might bring. But, for those who are in Christ, those who partake of the Lord s Supper, share the most mysterious, magnificent, and even unthinkable reality: communion with the Living God. And it is not enough that we have been chosen before the foundation of the world, loved by the father with an everlasting love, redeemed from our bondage of sin, forgiven, ransomed from Satan who held in this world, given wisdom and insight into the purposes of God, and adopted into his family. There is more! Remember Jesus words to his disciples right before he died. He prays to the Father saying, The glory that you have given
4 me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me (John 17:22-23). Do you see what we share, now in Christ, and in the future? It is mysterious I know. But, we share in the fellowship (communion) with God the Father and God the Son, and I would add God the Holy Spirit. And this communion is ONLY for believers in Christ. This is why the Lord s Supper is not for unbelievers. And in the same way, idolatry is not for believers! We share these things together! Who could think of such things? It is too good to be true. But it is. One quick application: For those who call themselves Christians, but desire fellowship with nonbelievers more than they do Christians, those inside church, I would strongly question their faith. Our actions always follow our hearts. Who do we love? What do we love? 3. True worship is based on principles of righteousness. Not everyone is a true worshiper. John Piper says, Missions exists because true worship does not. As we saw earlier from John 4, God is seeking those who will truly worship him. In John 1:12-13 we read: But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. You see, ONLY Christians are true worshipers. And we worship God because of principles of righteousness. And this truth is proclaimed every time we take the Lord s Supper. Look at v. 16: The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ. When we take the Lord s Supper, we participate, we identify, with the blood of Christ. So, what does the blood of Christ have to do with principles of righteousness? Let me give a simple example of a principle of righteousness. Fathers, when you tell your children to clean their rooms or they will be punished, what happens when they don t clean their room? Or, any other command you make clear to your children with consequences. Don t hit your sister... Or, you will be grounded? This is a principle of righteousness. When you say something you expect obedience; and if not, consequences follow (though we are not as consistent as God). If someone breaks into your house and they later find the person, you believe in principles of righteousness. You expect justice. What did God tell Adam? Obey me and you will live. You can eat of any tree of the Garden, but do not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. For in the day you eat of it, you will surely die. This is a principle of righteousness. And we know what happened. Adam and Eve listened to Satan; they followed his advice, not God s. In this way, they became the first idolaters. And God carried out his punishment, the sentence of death, spiritual death, and eventually physical death. And God was righteous in his decision! And sin entered the world, starting with Adam and Eve and all who would come from them (all of us). By nature, we do not worship God. We are sinners. We are idolaters by nature. We cannot pay for our sins. In fact, nothing in this world can appease God s righteousness. We will die and be separated from God based on principles of righteousness. God is not unjust to send anyone to hell. But, in his mercy and his grace, God himself has made a sure way to display his righteousness, to uphold his Word in punishing sin. Rom. 5:8: God commanded his love toward us, in while
5 we were yet STILL sinners, Christ died for us. Because of sin, there is NOTHING in this world that can save us. But, behold, there is a Lamb from God, a heavenly ONE, a perfect sacrifice to be punished in our place. Let me read v. 16 again, The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? Brothers and sisters, the blood of Christ, the death of Christ is God s principle of righteousness, by which we participate in this righteousness. Look with me to Rom. 3:16, which may be the clearest declaration of the Gospel in all the Scriptures. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it-- 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. And this is the Gospel. And those who believe in this gospel are true worshipers based upon principles of righteousness. As Christians, the Lord s Supper pictures for us true worship. True worship is communion with God, no demons. True worship is communion with others like us, those who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. And, the key to this communion is the death of Christ, which uphold and displays the righteousness of God.