Praise the Lord, church!

Today’s lesson pertains to the Lord’s Supper, the meal that Jesus institutes for believers while celebrating the Passover meal with His disciples. We read through the Passover institution in the Gospels last week. In today’s lesson, we examine the Corinthians and their abuse of the Lord’s holy institution and see how Paul responded to the Corinthian abuse.

There are a few questions that should govern our study today. First, how were the Corinthians abusing the Lord’s Supper? 2) Why were their abuses so antithetical to the ritual observance in the first place? and 3) what were the consequences for the Corinthian abuses?

Apart from these questions, the Lord’s Supper should make modern-day believers consider how we treat the Lord’s Supper. It is my opinion that we are as guilty of abusing the Lord’s Supper as the Corinthians were. One reason pertains to how small our observance of the Lord’s Supper is: while we often have large, elaborate meal for Homecoming and other service observances, we only have a few ounces of grape juice and small bread in little trays (at least in Baptist life, anyway). Perhaps, we, like the Corinthians, are “eating and drinking unworthy” with the small preparation for the Lord’s Supper observances while we gorge ourselves with the elaborate feasts of man-made observances.

This is Part 1F of the Why We Don’t Celebrate Easter series. You can find the rest of the series, Parts 1A through 1E, on our Audio Sermons and Bible Studies page and below:

Part 1A

Part 1B

Part 1C

Part 1D

Part 1E

I pray this doctrine teaching finds you well. Continue to pray for us, that The Essential Church would continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers in our church and the world. Pray for those who have lost children, and pray for those who have lost their mothers. Even as some celebrate, others are mourning. As the body of Christ, we are to rejoice with those that rejoice, and mourn with those who mourn.

We ask for special prayer for Beatrice, one of The Essential Church‘s beloved members, who lost her daughter this past week. The family needs financial support for funeral expenses. They have set up a GoFundMe page in her daughter’s honor. We ask for not only your prayers but your financial support. Should you feel led by the Spirit to donate, you can go here to make a donation:

https://www.gofundme.com/cellina039s-celebration-of-life

In our rejoicing and our mourning, let us remember to give God glory.

Pastor D.M.

 

1 Corinthians 11:17-34

¹⁷ Now in giving these instructions I do not praise you, since you come together not for the better but for the worse. ¹⁸ For first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it. ¹⁹ For there must also be factions among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you. ²⁰ Therefore when you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper. ²¹ For in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others; and one is hungry and another is drunk. ²² What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I do not praise you.

²³ For I 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; ²⁴ 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.” ²⁵ In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”

²⁶ For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.

²⁷ Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. ²⁸ But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. ²⁹ For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. ³⁰ For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. ³¹ For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. ³² But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.

³³ Therefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. ³⁴ But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest you come together for judgment. And the rest I will set in order when I come.

 

Passover Doctrine Songs

Opening Selection: “Worthy is the Lamb” (Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir)

Second Selection: “Behold the Lamb (Communion Hymn)” by Keith and Kristyn Getty

Pre-Teaching Selection: “Now Behold the Lamb” (Kirk Franklin)

Closing Selection: “Just As I Am, Without One Plea” (O Lamb of God, I Come”)