What does "examine himself" mean in the context of I Corinthians 11?
Consider mindsets that weaken the unity Christ intends the Lord's Supper to strengthen. First, an unresolved conflict with another Christian. (I'll forgive if he apologizes.) That attitude betrays Paul's admonition in Ephesians 4:32. Second, an uncorrected mistaken perspective. (I may be a sinner, but at least I'm not like....) That betrays the Savior's warning not to exalt ourself by demeaning another Luke 18:9-14. Third, thinking our higher station in life entitles us to disassociate with those not as fortunate. (I need to stay in my own comfort group.) That violates Christ's teaching in Luke 7:36-50 and 16:19-31. These sins, and others, kept the Corinthians divided into social and economic groups. And that kept them from bridging the differences to prove Christ's greater unity of all believers in the Lord's Supper. We can harbor other distinctions that to this day isolates, not unites, brothers and sisters in Christ at communion time. We should always monitor ourself. Do we have in us what limits the Spirit's Presence? Do we lack something that, if having, would allow the Spirit to make us better servants? The difference between unworthy manner and examine self IS Large. Unworthy manner means we betray the very nature of Christ. Examine self means we discover habits and attitudes that fail the very teaching of Christ. However, we can more easily repent of the latter than change the former. On Easter Sunday, April 1865, a well-dressed black man went forward to the altar in the Episcopal Church, Richmond, Virginia. There he knelt to receive the Eucharist. Everyone in the congregation sat stunned. The Pastor didn't move. Robert E. Lee rose from his pew, went forward and knelt beside the black man to receive the Eucharist. The military man united the Christians. The man of religion failed to unite the Christians. When the loaf and cup are passed to us Sunday, will we have in our minds and hearts what Robert E. Lee had in his, UNITING Christ's Body? Or what the Pastor harbored in his mind and heart, keeping the Body of Christ divided? Fini
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Remember the context in which early Christians observed the Supper to understand how they could easily abuse it. Instead of seeing it, as we do, a separate act in our common spiritual life, they held it at the END of a potluck-style Love Feast. In which over-indulgence in food and over-consumption in wine marred the observance.
We may feel over-eating shouldn't be that cause. But when it meant:
We surely understand that drinking to excess would:
Indeed, class-conscious members wanted daily-life distinctions preserved:
While the Lord's Supper demanded:
To worthily eat and drink the Lord's Table meant:
Point of fact, then. In the context of Corinthian behavior, unless we seek:
All words have meanings. In Sunday's message I took from a sack several objects and asked their identity. Tracy identified one in bubble wrap as a picture frame. Imagine Judy's surprise when the frame held her High School graduation picture. (We have lots of fun worshipping God at Cypress Court.)
The term "mad as a hatter" also has meaning. It refers to someone mentally ill. The saying came from the 19th century:
Boston Corbett, the man who shot John Wilkes Booth in the Virginia tobacco barn, worked as a hatter. Whatever his mental state at the time, he entered an insane asylum 22 years later. (I then showed three objects I related to the Lord's Supper: a Welsh Love Spoon, a loaf of Unleavened Bread from Judy's oven and a Chalice serving as a wine cup—purchased by Dawn at the Bates' Nut Farm.) Then...the message....I Corinthians 11 stressed far more spiritual truth about the Lord's Supper than a single message can relate. This sermon, and blog, try to explain only the meaning of "unworthy manner" and "examine himself." Fortunately, the context of 11:17-34 provides the answer to each. We don't need, therefore, to "make-up" explanations of each. Since the phrases originated in the abuse of the Lord's Supper in Corinth, and the meaning of each originates in Paul's instructions to the Christians, let's endeavor to determine their meaning. End Part I In reading Galatians 6:14 and Ephesians 2:8-9 we understand God's GRACE in Christ as the means by which we're forgiven: nothing earned by us, all given freely by God. What we desperately needed, but could never deserve or earn.
In reading Ephesians 2:10, Galatians 5:22-26 and Colossians 1:13-14 we understand God's expectation of us once delivered into Grace by forgiveness of sin: we incrementally incorporate into discipleship the Spirit's fruit as God's empowerment in service. In reading I Thessalonians 2:13-14, 3:9-10, 4:1 and 4:9-10, we find that God appreciates any spiritual victory Christians enjoy. Indeed, he increases our victories in faith as we exercise our faith in Christ. Beyond even that, God, by Christ's all-sufficient Grace, brings to completion any incomplete service, by reason of our human nature. Here's to TRYING to serve, to mature, to witness...knowing all effort is successful—first by our effort, then by Christ's GRACE, completing it. The Second Lesson stresses the importance of Christ's Bodily resurrection. A well-known Christian author claimed that the angel came:
Wrong. Removing the stone offered specific, undeniable evidence of his bodily resurrection...and
While having Jesus simply vanish from a closed tomb:
Seeing him ALIVE FROM the OPEN tomb:
Having Jesus simply disappear from a CLOSED tomb:
Exactly what liberal theologians to this day suggest:
Instead, Christ's Mighty Personal Triumph:
Third, Christ's bodily resurrection constitutes BARE-KNUCKLE evidence. God often offers needed gentle touches to life. They're his gifts:
That's all fine for distractions in life. But for proof of Christ's resurrection we need:
Bringing HOPE to all who accept him as Savior and Lord:
Whatever our age here we have yet to begin living. However close to our end here, we experience in Christ Alone the beginning of an adventure that HAS NO END. Fini Consider three lessons learned from Christ's bodily resurrection. The first today, the others tomorrow. I preached all three at length April 17 in lieu of the first three parts in this blog.
In the Spring of 1863, General Grant sent Colonel Benjamin Grierson's cavalry on a 300 mile penetration of the South, Memphis to Baton Rouge. On his arrival Grierson telegraphed Grant: the South is an empty shell. Which is what Christ's resurrection proved death to be: an empty shell, boasting victories it couldn't defend against Christ's counter attacks; successes Christ's resurrection turned into defeat; claims about life that Christ's resurrection exposed as Satan's lies, and more lies! A giant boulder rolled from the hills above Pacific Coast Highway a few years ago, rammed through barriers built to prevent such intrusions, and exploded like a bomb on the highway. Since it couldn't be removed intact, Caltrans officials drilled holes in the rock, planted dynamite sticks and ignited them. It worked, blasting the stony immensity into movable pieces. Jesus exploded death from inside death, leaving it conquered, a shambles, an empty shell, a powerless braggart.... Read Hebrews 2:14-18 to see how that provisions Christians with confident hope at every grave! End Part IV Simultaneously, as dust settled, and air cleared, the soldiers saw a gigantic Being in white appear—as a pillar of light emerge outside the tomb:
Walking to the stone:
Leaving the entire Roman guard:
Hardly had they adjusted to that shock when:
Before it cascaded into the garden as an exponential radiance. All of which dimmed when Jesus Christ himself bounded from the tomb:
And that, dear readers, is this writer's poor description of Christ's resurrection. End Part III Next: what lessons can we learn from it? Relaxation from the previous unsettling mood of creation lasted only momentarily...for:
There it stopped and seemed to pause:
In those stony depths, the tremor stopped: and
As it exploded...unseen inside the grave, the corpse of Jesus the Nazarene
Up he stood, light from his eyes illuminating the dark:
Simultaneously...outside...as the dust settled.... (This re-creation imagines some of the side-lights of Christ's bodily resurrection.)
The 16-man detachment ordered to guard the tomb of Jesus rotated on and off duty as sunset approached, Saturday of passion Week. The first three-hour watch occurred from 6-9 PM, the second 9-12 Midnight, the third Midnight-3 AM, the fourth, 3-6 AM. Sometime between 3-6 AM Sunday—likely between 4-5—God changed human history. In those hours:
EXCEPT...God had other plans for that first Resurrection Sunday. The songs that awakened the land suddenly, inexplicably and fearfully:
The sudden Quiet even awakened the men asleep:
After what seemed interminable delay, to their relief:
And next? April 17, Resurrection Sunday, 2022. But a remembrance of his resurrection occurs Jesus every Sunday when we take the loaf and cup in communion. The cup reminding us of his ALL-SUFFICIENT sacrifice to forgive all the sins of all the individuals in all generations. How comprehensive! The loaf reminds us of God's use of our body after baptism: we're his, not our own; for him to use, direct, empower, not ours to live as we please. And our body CHANGED in an instant when he returns from Heaven. And if in the grave, or decayed into dust, CHANGED in the same instant into the new, glorious body Philippians 3:20-21.
It doesn't matter, therefore, if Christ's tomb had the church of the Holy sepulcher built over it, or if Gordon's tomb housed his corpse. It was fitting only that it was a borrowed tomb—since he wouldn't need it long. And fitting that the empty tomb didn't prove his bodily resurrection. In fact, as Simon Peter proved, he left the empty tomb "wondering to himself what had happened" Luke 24:12. Both our assurance of forgiveness, and confidence of eternal life in spiritual bodies, rest on Jesus Christ's bodily resurrection, witnessed by hundreds that Sunday and in the succeeding six weeks, I Corinthians 15:6-8, Acts 1:3. Therefore, don't look for the grave of Jesus. Don't wish you could stand there, remembering. For as the angel reminded the ladies at the tomb, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, he has risen!" Luke 24:5-6. Yours for Life-giving faith in the Living Lord Jesus. And Resurrection Joys for you as you worship the Living Christ. Amen. Fini. |
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