(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Part of the chapter that I'd like to focus on is beginning in verse number 17, where the Bible reads, Now in this I declare unto you, I praise you not, that ye come together, not for the better, but for the worse. For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you, and I partly believe it. For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. Come together therefore into one place. This is not to eat the Lord's Supper. And I'm going to preach this morning on how to observe the Lord's Supper. How to observe the Lord's Supper, this is also known as communion. And we're going to actually back up before we go in depth in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, we're going to back up to Matthew chapter 26. So if you want to turn to Matthew 26, we're going to see where Jesus instituted or implemented this practice of the Lord's Supper. But the Bible said there in verse 20, when you come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper. And what I'm going to show you this morning is that the Lord's Supper is not just an all-inclusive thing to be administered to the general assembly of just everybody who comes together, everybody who shows up and comes together in one place. He says when you come together into one place, it's not to eat the Lord's Supper. Yet most people would teach the opposite, that you must come together all in one place in order to eat the Lord's Supper. And I'm going to show you why that's a wrong teaching, it's a wrong interpretation. Go back to Matthew 26, but while you're turning there, let me mention this. When the Bible talks about coming together in one place, he's talking about the general assembly of the church. For example, in Acts chapter 2 verse 1 it says, when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And we know from chapter 1 that that was a group of 120 people. It was the disciples, it was women, it was children, and that early church started out there in chapter 1 with 120 people and they all gathered together in one place. Also in 1 Corinthians 14, 23 it says, if therefore the whole church be come together into one place. So it uses that same term about the whole church coming together into one place. Now let's look at when this was instituted. Go to Matthew 26 verse 17. Now the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus saying unto him, where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the Passover? So I just want to point out that this had to do with the Passover. Look at verse 20. Now when the even was come, he sat down with the twelve. So Jesus sits down with his twelve disciples. And as they did eat, he said, verily I say unto you that one of you shall betray me. And they were exceeding sorrowful and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I? And he answered and said, he that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me. The son of man goeth as it is written of him, but woe unto that man by whom the son of man is betrayed. It had been good for that man if he had not been born. Then Judas, which betrayed him, answered and said, Master, is it I? He said unto him, Thou hast said. And as they were eating, Jesus took bread and blessed it and break it and gave it to the disciples and said, Take, eat, this is my body. And he took the cup and gave thanks and gave to them, saying, Drink ye all of it. For this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom. Let me just point out some things from this first instance of the Lord's Supper. This is what the Lord's Supper is patterned after, Christ's institution of it at what we would call the Last Supper, okay? And here we see that, first of all, it's tied in with the Passover. Second of all, we see that every man examines himself right before they eat of that Supper. They're saying what? Is it I? Am I the traitor? Right? They're all examining themselves. And then after that, Jesus blesses the bread, he breaks it, and he gives to them, they eat, and likewise with the cup. Now let me ask you this. Is the entire church present? No, 13 people are present. There's really no way to construe this as being the church. There are no women, no children, there aren't 120 people, there aren't several hundred people or thousands of people. It is only 13 men that are gathered together. And that's a pretty intimate gathering. When you just have 13 people at one table, you know, that's dinnertime at my house, right? But you know, that's a pretty small intimate gathering. That's what we see. Now let's flip over to Mark 14, and we're going to see it in that Gospel. We're going to look at all four Gospels and learn about the Lord's Supper. Because 1 Corinthians chapter 11 is not the chapter that institutes the Lord's Supper. Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper at the Last Supper, okay? So this is really where we find the basis for the Lord's Supper. This is the root of this doctrine, is getting back to Jesus instituting it with his disciples. Look at Mark 14 verse 17. And in the evening he cometh with the twelve, and as they sat and did eat, Jesus said, Verily I say unto you, one of you which eateth with me shall betray me. And they began to be sorrowful, and to say unto him one by one, Is it I? And another said, Is it I? And he answered and said unto them, It is one of the twelve that dippeth with me in the dish. The Son of Man indeed goeth as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It were it for that man, if he had never been born. And as they did eat, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and break it, and gave to them, and said, Take, eat, this is my body. And he took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And he said unto them, This is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many. Verily I say unto you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine until that day that I drink it new in the kingdom of God. Now in this passage we have the same elements that we found in the other passage, but one thing that we see in this passage is there are some additional curses heaped upon Judas saying woe unto that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. Now flip over to Luke 22, and you say, Pastor Anderson, why are you bringing that up? Why do you keep bringing up Judas? Why are you bringing up these curses? Why are you pointing out the disciples asking, Is it I? You know, what does this have to do with the Lord's Supper? I mean, what did Judas have to do with it? I mean, Judas wasn't even around for the Lord's Supper, or the Last Supper. Well, yes he was, and actually I'm going to show you from 1 Corinthians 11 why this is significant and why it does tie in. Look at Luke 22 verse 14. And when the hour was come, he sat down, and the twelve apostles with him, and he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I say unto you, I will not eat any more thereof until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this, and divide it among yourselves. For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God shall come. And he took bread, and gave thanks, and break it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you, this due in remembrance of me. Likewise, also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood, which is shed for you, but behold, the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the table. Now let me ask you this. Was Judas dismissed before they partook of the last supper together? No, now I've heard a lot of people teach that, and in Matthew or Mark, you could read it that way because Matthew or Mark just don't give you a clear timeline as to when exactly Judas left the room. But it really couldn't be any clearer here in Luke 22, isn't it pretty clear that Judas actually participated in the Lord's Supper? He participated in this eating of the bread and drinking of the cup? Because right after he says, This is my body, this cup is the New Testament in my blood which is shed for you, but, but is what, a conjunction, but behold, the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the table. He didn't say, Oh, just kidding, he already left. He said he's here. Does everybody understand that? Everybody see that? Okay. And then what do they do? It says, you know, they began to inquire among themselves which of them it should be that would do this thing. Now go to John 13. Now John 13 is not usually mentioned in discussions of the Lord's Supper simply because it does not actually have Jesus saying, This is my body and this is my blood. It doesn't contain that part of it. It gives a very different style of narrative, but it's clearly the same event. So let's look at it anyway. But what have we learned so far? In all three passages, it's been consistent that you had a Passover gathering, right? And that when they were gathered together, they had unleavened bread and they had the fruit of the vine, or juice, and that they partook of it, they prayed, they blessed it, and there was always a self-examination and a condemnation of the one who is the traitor. Does everybody see all those elements in all three passages? And the traitor was present, Judas. Go to John 13, verse 1, the Bible reads, Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him. And we're going to jump down to verse 21, it says, When Jesus had thus said he was troubled in spirit and testified and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you that one of you shall betray me. Then the disciples looked one on another, doubting of whom he spake. Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved. And Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him that he should ask who it should be of whom he spake. He then, lying on Jesus' breast, saith unto him, Lord, who is it? Jesus answered, He it is, to whom I shall give a sop, when I have dipped it. And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. And watch this, after the sop, Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly. And we're going to come back to this when we get into 1 Corinthians 11. But we see here the same event, the same dinner, they're eating the bread, they're drinking of the cup, the same note about Judas being the traitor, the same self-examination, is it I? And when Judas partakes of the bread that Jesus gives him, that is when Satan entered into him, according to this scripture in John 13. So is everybody following so far? Now let's go back to Exodus chapter 12. So all four passages are clear, or if you just want to talk about the main three, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, all three passages are clear that it is just Jesus and the 12 disciples, it is 13 people present at the table, it's associated with the Passover, and the same things happen in all the accounts. Now let's go back to Exodus 12 and look at the Passover because it's clear that the Passover that the Lord's Supper is a New Testament version of the Passover, right? At the Passover, they ate the unleavened bread, and they drank of the wine, and they had the lamb that they actually ate as the meat entree. Well, in the Lord's Supper, you don't have the lamb because Jesus is the lamb, okay? So you don't slay a lamb and go through that burnt offering and roast it with fire, no, what do you do? Just do the bread and the wine and you skip the meat because Jesus Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us, he's the lamb, okay? But there is still a strong connection between communion, or the Lord's Supper, and the Passover. It's the continuation of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, we're just celebrating it in a New Testament fashion, right? So let's go back and look at what the Old Testament Passover was like. Look at Exodus chapter 12, verse 1, and the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be unto you the beginning of months, it shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for a house, and if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls, every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. Ye shall take it out from the sheep or from the goats, and ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month. And the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening, and they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door posts of the houses wherein they shall eat it. So with the Passover, the whole congregation would get together and they would slaughter the lambs for the Passover, but they did not eat it together as a congregation. And look, there are other times in the Old Testament when the whole congregation would eat together, but this is not one of them. They would kill the lambs together, but then they would actually eat it at home. The Bible says at the end of verse 7 that they would put the blood on the door posts of the houses wherein they would eat it. So they ate it in the houses. Now it was for the entire household, so that's mom, dad, kids, any servants, any people who live with them, other relatives, whoever. And for very small households, he said that they would combine with other households to eat it because it was according to how many people it would take to eat a lamb. So however many people it takes to eat an entire lamb, that's how many people would get together. So you'd have a couple small families come together or one big family with a lot of servants and people, you know, they would just do it on their own because they have enough people to finish that lamb. Or they would combine with other people together, okay? So here we see what the Passover is like. We saw what the Lord's Supper was like at the Last Supper that it's patterned after. Now with that information, let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter 11 and read what it has to say about the Lord's Supper or communion, 1 Corinthians chapter number 11. And this is the passage that goes into the most detail or talks the most about the Lord's Supper in the New Testament. Now it says in verse 17, now in this that I declare unto you, I praise you not that you come together not for the better but for the worse. For first of all, when you come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you and I partly believe it, for there must be also heresies among you that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. When you come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper. And then he goes on to say, for in eating, everyone taketh before other his own supper, one is hungry and another is drunken, and on and on. I'm going to get to that in a moment, but first I want to deal with this first part here where it says, when you come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper. Now I believe that what this is saying is that when you come together into one place, that's not the time or the place to eat the Lord's Supper. That makes sense because of the fact that in the Passover time, they didn't all come together in one place to eat the Passover, and when Jesus and his disciples instituted this, they weren't all come together in one place, it was only just certain people that were there. This is not the entire church. Now some people would say, no, no, no, you got this all wrong. He's actually saying here, and I'm going to give you both sides here and show you why the other interpretation is not viable. The other way to interpret this would be that people are saying, no, no, no, what he's saying is that when you guys, the Corinthians, are coming together in one place, you guys aren't eating the Lord's Supper, that's the problem. The problem is that you're coming together and not doing it. So when you come together in one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper. To me, that's a stretch of what this verse actually says, but that's how a lot of people will interpret this, okay? And what they'll point to is they'll point to verse 21 where it says, for in eating, everyone taketh before other his own supper, and one is hungry and another is drunken, and they'll say, well, see right there, they're not eating the Lord's Supper, they're eating their own supper. They're doing their own thing. They're eating their own supper instead of eating the Lord's Supper. That's what he's actually saying. Here's the problem with that. There are a few problems with that. Let me go through why I don't believe that. Because of the fact that in verse 20, there's a word, therefore. And whenever there's a therefore, we need to see what it's there for, okay? The Bible says when you come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper. Therefore is connecting it to what? What was just said. So he makes some statements and then he says, therefore, what does therefore mean? Because of that, isn't that what therefore means? So he's saying X, Y, Z, therefore, when you come together into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper. Okay, what's the therefore? What does verse 19 say? For there must also be heresies among you that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. That's the therefore. Now, some people will dispute this and say, no, no, no, 19 is not the therefore. You got to take it all the way back to 18. 19 is a parenthetical. Jump all the way. Okay, let's jump back to 18 then. For first of all, when you come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you and I partly believe it. But what does verse 19 say is the cause of division? So either way, verse 19 is what we're talking about, friend. Because even if we're talking about verse 18, 18 is explained in 19. He says there are divisions among you. Why? Because there's heresies among you. And there are heretics and then there are the people that are approved, the right people and the wrong people. Does everybody see that? So whether you want to take the therefore back to verse 18 or 19, we're dealing with the fact that there is division as a result of heresy. Now, if we were to take the interpretation that it's, well, they're doing their own supper instead of doing the Lord's Supper because of heresy? Think about that. That doesn't make any sense, does it? Hey, because there's heresy and division, when you guys come together, you don't do the Lord's Supper. You do your own supper because this guy's hungry and this guy's drunk. See how there's kind of a disconnect there? That doesn't really make sense. Because why would being hungry or being drunk or being pushing and shoving in line or getting in front of other people at the buffet table, why would that be a result of division caused by heresy? You see what I mean? That's why this doesn't add up. Because the therefore is referring to the divisions of heresy. So what's actually being said here is, look, there's heretics among you. There are going to be Judas Iscariots among you. There are going to be false teachers among you, bad people among you. Therefore when you all come together in one place, because there are people who are following those bad people, there are divisions, heresies, people that believe strange things. Because of that, when you come together into one place, it's not to eat the Lord's Supper. Then he explains other problems with coming together into one place to eat the Lord's Supper. He's saying, look, this is what happens when you all come together into one place to eat the Lord's Supper. This is what's happening in Corinth. One is, let me get there in my notes, one is taking, or everyone is taking before other his own supper, one's hungry, another's drunken, what have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? Or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not. What shall I say unto you? Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not. So at the general assembly of the church in Corinth, not only are there people who are heretics or people who are following heretics, but there are also just bozos who are showing up drunk or just showing up for free food. So there are all kinds of problems here in the church at Corinth. But let's keep reading, verse 23. For I have received of the Lord that which I also delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. Notice how the traitor is brought up consistently every time in the Gospels when we see the Last Supper, and even when Paul brings it up in 1 Corinthians 11, he ties in the fact that Jesus was betrayed. So everybody's pointing to the fact that Judas was there, okay, and I'm going to explain why. Look at verse 24. And when he had given thanks, he breaketh and said, Take ye, this is my body which is broken for you, this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood, this do ye as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come. Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep, sleep meaning they're dead. Okay? Now, stop and think about this. We are to examine ourselves before we partake of the Lord's Supper, right? Hey, let a man examine himself because you don't want to eat or drink unworthily and eat and drink damnation unto yourself. Now I've heard a lot of people throughout my life, you know, I grew up an independent Baptist, I've grown up in church, and I've heard this passage taught more times than I can even count. And what I've often heard is, you know, you need to make sure that you're right with God when you partake of the Lord's Supper. You need to make sure you don't have any unconfessed sin in your life and make sure that you don't have any problem with a brother or any strife or anything like that. But I don't see that anywhere in this passage. When the Bible talks about someone eating or drinking unworthily, I'll tell you what makes you worthy is just simply being saved. It's not by works of righteousness that we've done. It's not by our goodness or our clean living that we are able to partake of the bread and to partake of the blood of Christ. It's just through salvation that makes us worthy to be a partaker. So who is the one who is unworthy? It's the one who is not saved, okay? So Judas was not saved, right? He partook of it unworthily and, in fact, the moment that he even put it in his mouth, the Bible says that Satan entered into him, okay? And he was unsaved and he participated in it anyway and was cursed by God, okay? Now here he says, look, if people partake of this unworthily, they're guilty of the body and blood of the Lord, but let a man examine himself. Now again, I've heard this taught as, hey, examine yourself if you're right with God today. But hold on a second. There's only one other place in scripture where it tells you, examine yourself. And you know what it says in that other place? Examine yourselves whether you be in the faith. Prove your own selves. Know ye not how that Jesus Christ is in you except you be? And what was Judas? He's a reprobate. Judas is a reprobate. He said, look, examine yourselves whether you be in the faith. Prove your own selves. Know ye not how that Jesus Christ is in you except you be reprobates? He's saying, look, you need to examine yourself whether you're truly saved so that you make sure that you eat and drink worthily. What makes us worthy? What gives us the right to partake of the body and blood of Jesus? It's the fact that we've believed on Christ. It's the fact that we're saved. It's not because we're living right this week or that we have a clean life this week or that we've confessed all our sins to God this week. It's the fact that we're saved. I think that that's pretty clear. Now stop and think about this because, again, a lot of people would say, nope, you must do communion. You must do the Lord's Supper in the General Assembly with all the church present. Don't do it somewhere else. Well, then, okay, if that's true, then I guess Jesus and the disciples were doing it wrong when they instituted it. Stop and think about that. If you're going to say, hey, buddy, that's wrong, and then I would ask you to show me this. Show me one verse in the Bible that says that. Show me one verse in the Bible that says you must do this all assembled together in one place or you must do this in church. Don't you dare do it out of church. There's nothing like that in the Bible. In fact, according to what I'm showing you in 1 Corinthians 11, 20, the Bible is actually saying the opposite. Don't do it when you're all together. Now let's talk about how people have believed about this through the years. First of all, you've got the Catholics and the Protestants. They're so screwed up on this, they're eating it in the morning. They don't even know that supper is something that you eat at night. That's how much we should trust them on their interpretation. The Catholics and the Lutherans and the Protestants are eating this on Sunday morning because they haven't even figured out the supper part, that supper is a meal that you eat at night. So I don't think that they really matter in this discussion. Now when it comes to Baptists, the vast majority of Baptists, and my experience growing up as a Baptist, Baptists never taught to just give communion to every single person. Just any Tom, Dick, and Harry that walks in off the street, Joe Blow walks in off the street, just give communion to everyone. I've never been in a Baptist church that has ever taught that. I've never seen that. So what they do is they say, well we're going to do it in a church service. They don't do it on Sunday morning because they're smart enough to know that you eat supper at night. But they'll do it at an evening church service where all kinds of people are there, everybody's there, visitor's there. And what they do is they just get up and say, now look, don't take this if you're not saved. Don't do it if you're not baptized. Don't do it X, Y, and Z. Don't do it if you're not this or not that. Different churches have different, some of them require you to be a member of that church. Some of them just require you to be a member of a church. Some of them just require that you're saved and baptized and believe. But they all give all these warnings, right, saying like, don't do it if you're this, don't do it if you're that. But then here's what they do. But then the ushers just come down the aisle and just hand it out to everybody. They just hand it out to everybody. And usually they don't even break the bread, which is symbolizing this is my body which is broken for you. It's like a little square, a pristine square, which is defeating the whole symbolism of breaking it, okay. But they hand it out to everybody. And you just, I grew up my whole life just seeing people coming in off the street and just partaking of it. And people who aren't saved partaking of it all the time. Now these unsaved people that are partaking of it are not necessarily a Judas. See we want Judas to partake of it. We want Judas to partake of it so that he can get sick or maybe even die. You know what I mean? Isn't that what it said? I mean it said, look, if people take this unworthily, they're likely to get sick or die. When Judas took it, Satan entered into him. So look, we want Judas. We want the infiltrators and Judases to take it and get sick or die. Okay, that'd be great. But what we don't want is we don't want people who are just not saved to just participate in the Lord's Supper not discerning the Lord's body. And they're unworthy and they're just eating and drinking damnation unto themselves, right. So we want to make sure that we're not administering communion to the wrong people that are just sincere but they don't even know the Gospel. Maybe they've never even heard the Gospel. Now somebody would say like, well, just present the Gospel every time before you do communion. Just take 15 minutes and just give the Gospel. Okay, but you and I both know that that's not an effective way to get people saved. What's the most effective way to get people saved? One on one, right? Like actually having a dialogue, not just getting up and saying, all right, here's the plan of salvation. I can't even count how many times I've got up and preached the Gospel and then walked up to people afterward and they didn't understand until I actually explain it to them one on one and dialogue with them one on one. So to me, I don't think it's fair to the people who come in off the street to just give a disclaimer and then just hand it out to everybody anyway. Everybody participates in it no matter what they believe, no matter if they've been coming to the church a week or a month or a year. You just hand it out to everybody and, you know, you could be causing people to eat and drink damnation unto themselves. You're causing people to eat and drink unworthily. And by the way, let me just point out that this is called communion, okay? Now flip back if you would to 1 Corinthians 10 verse 16. The Bible says the cup of blessing which we bless is it not the communion of the blood of Christ, 1 Corinthians 10, 16. The bread which we break is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread and one body, for we are all partakers of that one bread. Now, what does the word communion mean? Communion has to do with union, right? I mean it has to do with fellowship. It has to do with we have something in common. We're celebrating something together, okay? Now the word communion is used three times in the New Testament. One time is right here. We're looking at it. The next time it's used is when it tells you not to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers but to come out from among them and be separate, saith the Lord. He says because what communion hath light with darkness. And then the third and final time the word communion is used is in 2 Corinthians 13 when it says the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all, amen, which is coincidentally the same chapter that tells you to examine yourself whether you're in the faith. Not a coincidence, okay. So the point being that the whole purpose of the Lord's Supper or communion is it's a time to celebrate Christ's body being broken for us, Christ shedding his blood on the cross for us. It's a time for us to remember that, to commemorate that, to reenact that Last Supper with people who are our brothers and sisters in Christ, with people who believe in Christ. Not with unbelievers, not with heretics, not with people who don't believe the Gospel, but with people who believe like us, people we can have communion and fellowship with. Now you say, well, yeah, but what about Judas being there? But here's the thing. How do we know if someone's a Judas? All we can go by is what they say. Judas said all the right things. So if somebody is going to show up and say all the right things and claim to be saved and claim to believe like us and we partake of communion with that person, that's not our fault. They're drinking damnation on themselves. That's their problem. God's not going to punish us because, what, we're in the integrity of our heart thinking that we're fellowshipping with people that are like us. We've come out from among the world and been separate and sharing communion with someone. They're the one who's the liar. It wasn't Peter, James, and John's fault that Judas is there celebrating with them. And Jesus, of course, had Judas there on purpose to illustrate this point so that it would be demonstrated that he was there among them and he's punished as a result of his lack of discernment of the Lord's body. So let's go back to 1 Corinthians 11 and just finish the passage here. He says, wherefore, verse 27, whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself and let him eat of that bread, so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we're chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another. And if any man hunger, let him eat at home, that ye come not together unto condemnation. And the rest will I set in order when I come. Now some people will point to verse 33 and say, well, it says when you come together to eat. Listen, come together, yes. Come together all into one place, no. Why? Because communion, the Last Supper, the Lord's Supper, is and always has been an intimate gathering. Not a mass throng of people, but an intimate gathering. In the Passover time, it was an intimate gathering. When Jesus did it with his disciples, it's an intimate gathering. When the Corinthians did it, it was not an intimate gathering. It was just this gigantic thing, and it descended into chaos in that particular case. That's basically the biblical evidence, okay? And so he says when you come together into one place, it's not to eat the Lord's Supper. So yes, come together. Look, you don't partake of the Lord's Supper by yourself. Otherwise it's not communion, right? You're getting together and celebrating it with your brothers and sisters in Christ, but you're not getting it together and doing it with every Joe Blow who walks through the doors of the church, okay? Now, how do we observe the Lord's Supper? Well, first of all, let me give you the cautions. What are the cautions that we get from Scripture here? Do not participate if you are unsure of your salvation. Now, you know what I've noticed about a lot of people that are not saved is that they think they're saved? Have you noticed that on Soul Waning? That's why to get up and say, you know, all right, all right, everybody, only observe the Lord's Supper if you're saved, all right, ushers, now come and hand it out to everybody. And they're expecting that person to be like, oh, no thanks, I'm going to hell. No thanks, I'm not saved. Or feeling awkward like I'm here, but I'm supposed to just take a pass or something. And then everybody's kind of like, why is he taking a pass or whatever, you know, whatever. You know, if you have some horrible sin in your life, don't partake either. And then it's like, well, I wonder what he's into, you know, which I don't think that's even applicable because like I said, I believe the only unworthily is unsaved, okay? But people who aren't saved, they think they're saved. So therefore, it's not enough to just say, hey, don't do it unless you're saved, ushers, would you come? Let's pass it out to everybody. And they say, we don't police the table. Well, that's too bad for all the people that you're handing it out to and causing them to eat and drink damnation under themselves and get sick and be punished and have the curse of God. So the cautions are you don't participate if you're unsure of your salvation. If you're not saved, if you're unsure of your salvation, don't participate. Number two, don't knowingly partake of it with unsaved people because you don't want to lead them to do that, okay? And it's not enough to just say, don't do it if you're not saved and you know they're not saved. But then it's like, well, that's their problem. It's like, well, do they even understand? Have they even been taught? Have they even been given a clear presentation of the Gospel? I don't know. Sometimes. Sometimes not. And then number three, we would never want to observe the Lord's Supper in a silly or flippant way. This is a very somber, serious time of reflection and remembrance of the Lord. We want to make sure that we discern the Lord's body, that we're respectful, that we do things decently and in order, that we don't turn it into just chowing down and snacking. Oh, I'm hungry, you know, like some people were doing in Corinth, right? Oh, man, great. Communion, great. I'm hungry. Let me just fill up on this or, yeah, I'm thirsty. Let me just drink up, buddy. No. So we don't want to participate if we're not saved. But, of course, a lot of people don't know that. So we want to make sure that we don't lead people who are not saved into participating and offer it to people that aren't saved. Okay? Now, if we check somebody's salvation and they tell us, oh, yeah, I believe in Jesus Christ, he's the Son of God, I'm saved, all my faith's in him, and they're lying to us, then at that point they're a Judas at that point. If they're just going to lie through their teeth and tell you all the answers even though they don't believe in them, that's their problem at that point. So how do we observe the Lord's Supper? Number one, we do it in a small group, not the entire church together in one place. Now, why a small group? Because then you can actually talk to people. You can actually figure out what they believe, make sure that they have the same beliefs as we do, right? And make sure that they understand this doctrine, the seriousness of it, and that they're ready to participate. Okay? So that's the purpose of doing a small group. Now here's the thing. It's easy for tiny churches to say, well, we don't have a problem with this. Yeah, that's because you're only running a church that's the size of one lamb. You see what I'm saying? But what happens when the church is running 500? What happens? Look, I believe that the church in Corinth probably ran thousands of people. That's why it got crazy like that. There's thousands of people. Look, we know the early church in Jerusalem had thousands of people in it, they had 3,000 people added to the church, 5,000 people added to the church. And this church in Corinth was a big church, it had thousands of people. Look, our church has 350 people in it, we've only been around for 13 years, and you know, I'm not the apostle Paul or Apollos or Stephanus or anybody else, even though my name is Steven, I'm not Stephanus. And so I'm not that addicted to the ministry. So the point is that, you know, our church someday is probably going to be a lot larger than it is now. It's already big, but what would, you know, and look, I don't even know everybody in here. If I had to name everybody right now, I don't know, I couldn't do it, that's why I need the yearbook. So get your picture taken, for crying out loud, so I can learn all the names and learn everybody. But look, what when we're running 500, and then people are like, ah, your church is just too big then if you can't know everybody. So the church is too big if we can't know everybody, huh? Okay, well that sounds like a great excuse to stay small, sit on your butt, and not reach anybody and not do anything like the book of Acts. But you know, I want to be like the book of Acts, where we're growing and thriving and reaching people and winning people to the Lord. And it gets to a point where the pastor is not going to be personal friends with everybody in the church. But let me explain something to you. Somebody is going to be friends with everybody in the church, amen? See, I'm not the only person in this church to be friends with. So as the church gets bigger, you know, there are going to be other people that are knowing you and checking your salvation and talking to you and ministering to you. So when it comes to the Lord's Supper, we're not just going to get a thousand people together and just have like this assembly line, factory style Lord's Supper. That's not what it was intended to be. Now if it's a small church, okay, then yeah, then it's virtually like the apostles or virtually like Passover anyway. But when you have a big church, if you come together into one place, it's not to eat the Lord's Supper, because then otherwise there are going to be problems. And you don't know everybody, there's divisions, there's heresies, you know, it just doesn't work. So do it in a smaller group, not the entire church together in one place. Number two, you'd read the scripture in Luke chapter 22 and 1 Corinthians 11 and, you know, go over it with those present, make sure that everybody understands what it is. And then number three, you would invite those present to examine themselves, okay. And you know what, before I even sat down to partake of the Lord's Supper with someone, you know what I would ask that person first, I would ask that person if they're saved. And I wouldn't just say, oh, saved, okay. I would actually ask them, you know, so what do you believe a person has to do to get to heaven? So do you believe there's any way you could lose your salvation, you know. I would ask them some questions to check whether they're actually saved, okay, why? For their benefit. I don't want to lead them to participate in the Lord's Supper unless they're actually even saved. So I would check their salvation, I would invite them to examine themselves, but I wouldn't just say, all right, examine yourself whether you're saved and let me know yes or no. First I would teach them the Gospel or make sure that they already know the Gospel, then ask them to examine themselves. But first they have to know the Gospel and I would do that one-on-one to make sure that they actually understand the Gospel. And then, of course, we would use broken bread, we would break bread, break an unleavened bread, not a little manufactured square or circular wafer, okay. So this is the time, this is what unleavened bread is like. You can buy, this is from the fries right here on the corner, it's called a matzo cracker and it says not for Passover, but I'm not really worried about that, what that rabbi has to say. But anyway, if you look at the ingredients, you know, look at the ingredients because you don't want some kind of a GMO representation of the body of Christ or a bunch of additives or weird things. So this, the ingredients are unbleached, unbromated wheat flour and water. So it's just wheat flour and water, so there's nothing crazy in it. And it says it's non-GMO certified, no artificial colors, flavors or preservatives, right. So here you go, you know, this is unleavened bread. This is basically what you would use to partake of the Lord's Supper and you would break it. You know, it comes in like a big square and you'd break off a piece and hand it to those that are present. That's how you would do that. And then, of course, you would pray for God's blessing upon the bread and upon the cup. The cup is, of course, unfermented grape juice. Why unfermented? Because of the fact that unleavened bread, what do you use to leaven bread? Yeah, and guess what they use to ferment wine? So fermented wine is the equivalent of leavened bread. Okay, and so obviously we want to picture not just the perfect sinless flesh of Christ, but also the perfect sinless blood of Christ. So we don't want some tainted booze and this is Jesus' blood and it's booze. Okay, that would be blasphemous indeed. And then, of course, you would eat the bread and drink of the cup and then you would close in prayer. Right? So it's not complicated. It's a very simple process of just getting together, looking at the scripture, meditating upon Christ's Last Supper, meditating upon what took place there, how, you know, Judas betrayed Christ and he ate the Last Supper and he died on the cross and he was buried and he rose again. And just remembering this Bible story, being thankful for the sacrifice of Christ that his body was broken for us, that his blood was shed for us, just prayers of thanksgiving to God, a time of remembrance with God, and we just eat the bread and drink of the juice and pray unto the Lord. And then after that you could sing a hymn or fellowship or just go home at that point. I mean, whatever. But it's not really complicated. So let me answer some frequently asked questions here, okay? Number one, who is qualified to administer the Lord's Supper? Well, again, show me one verse in the Bible that says, hey, you have to be a pastor. You have to be a deacon. It isn't there. And there's no example like that in the Bible. So I would say that who is qualified to administer the Lord's Supper is anyone who is saved. Okay? And the reason I would say that is because if we go back to the Passover, the Bible says they shall take to them every man a lamb. Every man, according to his eating, shall make your count for the lamb. Now the context is every man who believes because they're the ones who are going to take the lamb and do what? Put the blood on the doorpost of the house. So if you have the blood applied to the doorpost of your heart, if you're saved, then you are qualified to participate in or even lead in the Lord's Supper. So who's qualified to administer the Lord's Supper? Every man who is saved. Okay, number two, you know, can I do it alone? The answer is no. You cannot do it alone or even if you put your hand on the TV screen, okay? You can't do it at home or alone because the Bible says we come together to eat the Lord's Supper. Now look, he did not say come together into one place. He said that's what not to do. He said you come together to eat the Lord's Supper. So it's not something you do on your own, it's communion. Now again, people would say, you know, no, no, you're getting it all wrong, you know. He's just telling them that when they came together, they're not eating the Lord's Supper, they're eating their own supper. Okay, okay. Well then, by that logic then, church potlucks are unscriptural because you're getting together and you're not eating the Lord's Supper, you're eating your own supper. Church potlucks are the problem. I mean, by that logic, then it would be wrong, and also, I'll take it a step further. By that logic, it would be wrong to ever come together as a church if you're not eating the Lord's Supper. You'd have to have it every single time you meet together. Well then, you can't meet on Sunday morning because that would be the Lord's brunch or the Lord's breakfast. See, if you actually think it through, that interpretation doesn't really hold up to scrutiny. And I don't care how many people believe in it, okay, it's just that a lot of people have certain traditions that die kind of hard, you know, pre-trib rapture, but you know what I mean? Like, so, I don't care how many people believe in it, you know, it just isn't there, okay. Now, another question that's often asked is, how often? Well, as oft as you do it. He said, do this as often as you do it in remembrance of me. So there's no specific frequency given, it's just as often as you do it, do it in remembrance of me. So this could be done, you could say once a year, because you know, the Passover was done once a year, and if this is the New Testament version of that, then okay, you could do it once a year. But I think you could also do it more frequently than that. If you wanted to, you could do this multiple times per year. But I think you should probably do it at least once a year, and maybe more, okay. Now some people would say, well, no, no, you've got to do it on the Passover, okay, or on Easter, because you know, Easter coincides with the Passover. If you just do a little Google search on Passover and Easter and every year, they always coincide. That's why Easter is all over the place. Have you ever noticed that Easter is not, sometimes it's not in March, it's in April, other times in April, not March, right, it moves all over the place, because it doesn't go by our calendar. It goes by the lunar calendar, so it ties in with Passover. Just look it up. Look it up for the last 10 years and see that it always coincides with Passover. But I don't have time to turn there, but in the Book of Acts, when they get together and break bread with the disciples, they're doing it weeks after the Passover in one instance, like 12 days later or something. So you know, I don't think that there's anything that says do it on the Passover or do it on Easter. I believe that it's just done whenever. You know, as often as you drink it, it could be once a month, it could be once every three months, it could be once a year, it could be every week, it could be every day, although that seems very excessive to do that every single day. But anyway, you know, the Catholics do it, yeah, in the morning, they do the Lord's brunch every day. So here's the conclusion, okay? And I hope I've answered all your questions, I hope that I've made the teachings of the Bible clear this morning, but if you understand what I'm teaching here and you're confident with this doctrine, it makes sense to you and you're confident and you understand it, then there's nothing to stop you from just observing the Lord's Supper without me presiding over it. You know, you could basically just get together with your household or with another household and you know, get some believers together and just observe the Lord's Supper and just lead in this if you're confident with this doctrine. But I know that, you know, some people might say, you know, I don't know where to get started or I wouldn't know how to begin or I'm shy or I need help with this, okay? And you know, obviously want to help you, so here's what we're going to do, okay? I've put over there on the wall a white mailbox, there's a white metal mailbox hanging on the wall over there and here's what you do, if you would like to be trained on this or if you want someone to observe the Lord's Supper with you and lead you in this, then just write your name, address, phone number and just drop it in that box and we have lots of great men in this ministry that preach and know the Bible well that would love to come over to your house and lead you in this and basically observe this with you in a small group where they would come over to your house and observe this with you. We want to make sure that everybody is included, that nobody's left out, but you know what that person's going to do when they come to your house and observe the Lord's Supper with you or get together with you and others, you know what they're going to do? They're going to talk to you about salvation, they're going to actually see what you believe, they're going to actually know you and explain things to you and talk to you. It's not just going to be an assembly line of a thousand people or 350 people or 250 people that just all show up and it's like, all right everybody, you got to be saved, you got to be baptized, but we're not going to police the table, all right, ushers would you come and you just see everybody, I mean I grew up just seeing all the wrong people taking it and I'm just like, wow, did they not just hear what he just said? Like he just told them no and they're all taking it. Should they be doing that? Now you say, well that's their problem. I think we should be more gracious than that and want to help people understand and do it right. There's nothing wrong, and again, I know that I'm going to get a lot of flack for this sermon and I've gotten flack when I've preached or taught this in the past. People give me flack about it, but if somebody wants to give me flack about it, here's my answer to those that give me flack about it. My answer is this, show me one verse in the Bible that says that it's wrong to do communion in a smaller group. And show me one example in the Bible where the whole church came together and did it besides this disaster in chapter 11 that he's telling them no about. That would be my answer to that and here's the thing, even people who believe in doing it in church, they also take it on the road too because guess what, they take it to people in the hospital and do communion with people in the hospital, they do communion with shut-ins, they do communion with people who live in outlying areas, they do communion in the mission field with people out in the villages and towns and places like that. So there's really nothing wrong with doing it in a smaller group and being more respectful and more careful and doing a better job of it, but I can see a lot wrong with just getting hundreds of people together and doing it in an assembly line type fashion. It was never meant to be that, it was meant to be an intimate gathering. So again, let me just, and I know I want to say this again because of the fact that from the pulpit, sometimes you have to say things repeatedly because it's not a one-on-one conversation and sometimes people zone out or get distracted, so let me just reiterate again, look, you ought to observe the Lord's Supper if you know you're saved. Who in here knows for sure that you're saved? Put up your hand. All right. Look, if you know for sure that you're saved, this is something that you ought to do. He said, this do in remembrance of me. You say, are you sure it's not outdated? He said, you're going to show the Lord's death until he comes. Until he comes. Has he come yet? No. So it's still something that we do then. Okay. You say, well, I'm too shy. I don't want to participate. I'm too shy. Oh, well, you're going to have a hard time going out soul-winding then if you're that shy. You know, some of God's commands require you to interact with other human beings. Right? You're like, I don't know, this sounds scary. Well, you know, wow. Are you ready to go soul-winding? Because that's even scarier than just getting together with some saved people and, you know, remembering the death of Christ for a few moments with the word of God and prayer and eating a cracker and drinking of the fruit of the vine. But look, if you're shy, write your name on the card. Get your phone number, address, throw it in the box, and, you know, we'll set it up with you and arrange it with you to help you. We have lots of qualified men in our ministry who know the Bible well, preachers that could come out and observe this with you. And so just write your name, address, phone number on the card. Or you might even say, you know what, I feel totally confident with it, but I just want somebody to come over and observe it with me anyway. Well then write your name on the card and throw it in the box and celebrate the Lord's Supper. Otherwise, if you already have, you know, friends in the church, your circle of friends, just get together with them and observe it. And you know, it might be good to just decide that you're going to observe it before the end of the year, those who know that they're saved. But be sure that when you do get together that everybody gives a testimony of salvation, you know, that everybody is on the same page on what they believe about salvation. And look, when it comes to your children, don't allow your children to participate unless they're old enough to where you're confident that they're saved. And you know what, get them baptized first. Wait till you're confident that they're saved, then get them baptized, then let them observe the Lord's Supper. Everyone should get baptized first, okay? That's a first step of obedience. All right? So let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and we thank you so much for the broken body of Jesus Christ. And we thank you so much for the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses us from all sin. Lord, help us to respectfully and rightfully and scripturally observe communion and the Lord's Supper. Help us to observe this in a way that would honor and glorify you and in a way that would be a blessing to the people who observe it, not a curse unto them unwittingly. And Lord, I pray that every infiltrator or Judas in our church would be sure to participate in this, that they might eat and drink damnation upon themselves, Lord, that the heretics might be judged and purged from among us. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.