Why People Sometimes Die After Communion | J.D. Greear | February 13, 2022

0:00 Well, good morning, Summit Church at different campuses around the Triangle. You just heard from your campus teams about the men's conference, but let me put my own personal exclamation point on that. It is going to be awesome. And I would not exaggerate from right here in saying that that is the truth. We have some of the greatest men speakers in the country that are going to be here. Joby Martin, our friend, who I always describe as the country boy C.S. Lewis. If Jeff Foxworthy and C.S. Lewis could have a son together, it would come out as Joby Martin. And that's if you've heard him, you know exactly that I'm telling the truth. And then there's John Tyson, somebody you may not know as well, but he's a pastor up in New York City in Manhattan, who just wrote a great book on fathering that I loved. One of the most culturally insightful teachers in America right now. Kind of like a new young Tim Keller. And then we're going to have our own Brian Loritz and then myself also. So God has really put the men of this church on my heart for the next 20 years.

0:58 And this conference is going to be about how you men and you future men, bring your sons, dads is what I'm telling you, how you can become the leaders that God has called you to be in your home, in society, and in the church. Worship at the event is going to be incredible. It's going to be an amazing, amazing weekend. Ladies, listen to me. You want your man there. You hear me? Look right here, ladies. Look right to me, okay? You want them there. I promise you. So in Jesus' name, you nag them until they sign up. You have my pastoral blessing to do that. On your way in, you should have received a handout that had a QR code that will link you directly to sign up, or you can just hop on our website or Summit app. Anything less than you doing that today will result in swift and decisive church discipline. You got it? You got it? Okay. 1 Corinthians 11, if you got your Bible, 1 Corinthians 11. It is Super Bowl Sunday. A friend of mine sent me this text earlier this week. He said, I know it is late notice, but a friend of mine has two tickets for the Super Bowl in Englewood, California at SoFi Stadium Sunday, February 13th. They are box seats that he spent $4,500 a piece for, which includes a limo ride from the airport, an open buffet in the box and a pass to the winner's locker room. What he did not realize last year when he purchased these tickets was that this year's Super Bowl fell on the same day as his wedding. If you or anybody else you know are interested, he is looking for somebody to take his place. The ceremony is at St. Paul's Church at 5 p.m. Her name is Ashley, and she'll be the one wearing the white dress. I am just kidding. I'm just totally out of an abundance of Caution, for all you bloggers, that was just a joke.

2:51 I never got any such text. Of course, you and I live in the triangle, and so the main sports focus this time of year for many is not even the Super Bowl. It's the intensifying rivalries of college basketball. One of the things that people who are new to this area just do not understand is how divided our communities can become in these few weeks leading up to March. You got all these rivalries. You got Wake Forest versus UNC. You got UNC versus Duke. You got NC State versus the Leesville Middle School girls team this year. Just kidding, okay? They're having a rough year, but you know what? Football season's right around the corner, right? NC State had a great football season. These seasons always start friendly. Oh, it looks like you guys got a great team this year. It's going to be great. By this time of year, it's just devolved into, you know, I really do think Coach K is possessed by the devil, that kind of conversation. My first discipleship group that I had here, about two-thirds of the guys in that group were from UNC, and the other third were from Duke. Well, Duke had pulled off that year an unexpected upset, and so the next morning at our discipleship group, the night, the morning after the game, it was, I mean, it was spicy. At first, I thought everybody was just kind of joking, a little friendly rivalry, exchanging these little barbs and their witty banter, but then one of the UNC guys visibly peeved, got up and just left, literally walked out of the room and did not come back. I called him later and he was like, yeah, I just couldn't handle it. I couldn't handle it that early in the morning. He was mad. The church in Corinth, the church in Corinth, 1 Corinthians 11 was filled with all kinds of divisions, much, much, much more serious than sports rivalries. As we have seen, there were divisions over convictions about what was right and what was wrong, about how to act in certain situations. There were cultural divisions.

4:46 There were class divisions. There will always be diversity in the church. There will be diversity of age, if it's a New Testament church at least. There'll be diversity of age, diversity of background, diversity of class, diversity of race, diversity in our preferences, diversity in our convictions over secondary matters, diversity in our political approaches and things like that. Jesus's vision of the church was not uniformity in all things cultural. Jesus' vision of the church that Paul reflects here is a unity in Christ that outweighs any distinctions in those secondary things. For the Corinthians, the one place, the one place that they should have most displayed their unity, that was the coming together around the Lord's table when they came together to partake of the bread and the cup. That place, that moment, Paul says, only highlights your divisions.

5:44 Take a look. 1 Corinthians 11, verse 17. Now in giving, in giving this next instruction, I do not praise you. I'm ticked off. Since you come together, not for the better, it's actually for the worse when you come together. It would be kind of better if you guys didn't even gather for church, he's saying. Because to begin with, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you in the service that are noticeable. Verse 21, for an eating, one eats, one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry and another gets drunk. In church, y'all, people are getting drunk. What? Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? All right, here's what was happening. This has got a little bit of a confusing passage when people just read it. Remember, in the early days of the church, there were no church buildings. So typically, they would gather in homes, and usually it would be the home of a wealthy person since their homes would have been big enough to host everybody. And so every Sunday, they would have shared a meal together and then done church after the meal. They had a full meal, by the way, not just a little cracker and juice, but as a part of that meal, they would celebrate the Lord's Supper right at the very end. They would celebrate communion or the Lord's table or the Eucharist or whatever you prefer to call it. Well, the rich people, because they all knew each other and most of them did not have to work on Sundays, they would get there early and they would eat and drink and have a big time with each other for a few hours. Eventually, the poorer people would start migrating in after work about the time for the service to start. But by then, all the seats in the main the main room were taken and the poor people would end up having to sit in another room or on the porch. Essentially, it was as if you had two separate campuses, one for the rich people and one for the poor people. Plus, by the time the poor people got there, all the food was gone.

7:39 And the rich people had been sipping on wine for hours, so they're a little saucy. So one group is hungry and the other, Paul says, is basically drunk. And so now you got all this bitterness and resentment growing in the church. The rich did not want to be associated with the poor. They're no fun. They're kind of dirty and sort of uncouth. And the poor felt excluded. What is worst of all is that the final part of this meal included that moment where they observed the Lord's Supper, where they would take the bread and they would break it and they'd take the cup and they would drink it. And so the rich and poor are basically observing that Lord's Supper as two literally separate groups. The rich people over in the first classroom and the poor people out on the porch. Paul is completely exasperated by this. His tone in verse 22 is, I don't even know where to start with you people. Do you have houses to eat and drink in? You gotta bring this junk into church? And so to address this, Paul lays out a theology of communion.

8:36 The Lord's table, the bread and the cup. I'll basically refer to it today as the Lord's supper. Because he says, if you understood communion, if you understood the Lord's supper, this would never happen. Remember our main driving idea in this series. It's that the gospel is the clear voice that cuts through all the noise of the Corinthian chaos. Paul says just reflecting on the gospel for 10 seconds will fix this problem. Here he goes, verse 23. For I received from the Lord Jesus what I also passed on to you. On the night when Jesus was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread. And when he had given thanks for that bread, he broke it. And he said, this is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, he took the cup after supper and said, this cup is the new covenant in my blood.

9:29 Do this as often as you drink it. Do it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Verse 27, so then whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sin against the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person therefore examine himself before he partakes of this moment. In this way, let him eat the bread, eat the bread and drink the cup. For whoever eats and drinks without recognizing the body, without recognizing what God has created, he eats and drinks judgment unto himself, not blessing. This is why many of you, he says, are sick and ill among you and why many have fallen asleep or died. Verse 33, therefore, my brothers and sisters, when you come together to eat, welcome one another. Now you gotta welcome.

10:22 It's not just between you and God in this moment. It's between you and other people. There are three words that arise out of Paul's theology of communion that you need to remember in every communion service you're ever a part of. Three words that summarize what is happening in the communion moment when we pass the bread and the cup. Three words which, if we really believed and applied them, y'all would cure so many of our social divisions and our church problems. Number one, here they are. Number one, proclamation. Number two, participation. And number three, examination. Here we go. Number one, proclamation. Verse 26, Paul says, as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you see the word? proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. I'm normally thought of as the proclaimer in this church. I stand right here and I proclaim. The Lord's Supper, Paul says, is itself a proclamation.

11:19 The bread and the cup are like, think of them like visual aids. Visual aids to help you understand the sermon better, help you better reflect on the gospel, a sermon prop. I've told you that my son, added has told me that I need to use more props in my messages. He said to me, dad, I could pay attention and my friends could too. We would be better if you would just use more props. The Lord's table was itself supposed to be a prop that Jesus instituted to help us understand the gospel that is being proclaimed. Now, what is it that is being proclaimed in the bread and the cup? The first thing that these elements proclaim is that we need to be saved. Every time we hold these up. That's what we're saying. As Paul notes, on the night before Jesus died, Jesus held up the bread and said, this is my body, which is broken for you, for the forgiveness of your sins. If salvation could have been obtained any other way, Jesus would not have had to die. If salvation could have been obtained through good works, Jesus would not have had to die. If there really were multiple ways to get to heaven, Jesus would not have had to die. Sometimes people think they're being cultured and generous when they say, oh, yes, yes, Jesus is my personal way to get to heaven, but I'm sure that God accepts other ways. Just be a good person. Be sincere in your religion.

12:39 Be kind to people, and then God will accept you. That may feel kind and generous and cultured to you, but do you realize what kind of insult that is to Jesus? Jesus prayed on the night that he died, Father, if there's any other way, let this cup pass from me. And you're telling me that God the father was like, well, yeah, there actually are other ways. There are multiple ways to get to me, but I'm still going to make you die. What an insult to Jesus. This cup and this bread proclaim you need to be saved, and there's only one way that that can happen. Being sincere is not enough. You must be born again from above. Salvation is not something you work up from within. It's something given to you from above. You need to be saved by Jesus. Second, the bread in the cup proclaimed that you can be saved. Not just that you need to be, but you can be. Jesus did not add any qualifiers to the word you when he said, this is my body, which is broken for you. Which means if you are a you, he's talking to you. Sometimes people think, well, not me.

13:43 My sins were too flagrant. My sins were too shameful. I turned away from God too many times. Not true. This is my body, which is broken for you. If you're a you, he's talking to you. Maybe you've gotten some messed up view of Calvinism. My wife says she was like this for many years. And so you think, well, I must not be one of the elect. Not true. This is my body, Jesus said. If you're listening to me right now, this body was broken for you. If you were hearing this right now, it can be for you. Jesus said, whosoever will may come and eat of the bread of life freely. I'm sure glad he said whosoever, because if he had listed out certain kinds of sinners, I probably would have figured out, wondered if my sin was included in that list. In saying whosoever, he means anyone from anywhere, no matter what mistakes you've done, no matter what sins or shame you bring. John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him would not perish but have eternal life.

14:43 I remember hearing when I was a teenager, put your name in that verse. For God so loved, put your name in there, Justin or Rachel, that if Justin believes in Jesus, Justin will not perish, but Justin will have eternal life. His death is sufficient for you. There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and any sinner plunged beneath that flood loses all their guilty stain. The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day, and there may I, the vile as he, wash all my sin away. There is a place at this table for you. No matter who you are, what you've done, no matter what kinds of failures or struggles you bring into this moment. You might be the biggest sinner in our city. You might be the biggest sinner in this state. If we knew who you were, we'd probably get nervous and hold our kids and our possessions a little closer to us. There's a place at this table for you. One of the greatest feelings to be in high school was when I'd come into the lunchroom. It's packed for lunch and there's nowhere to sit. One of my friends would wave at me and be like, hey, over here, we got a seat for you. We saved you a seat. Jesus saved a seat at his table for you, and he invites you to sit there right by him.

15:52 Third, we proclaim that suffering and death are not the end. Verse 26, for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death, see this, until he comes again. In this world, good people live with hardship. Sometimes they're poor. Sometimes good people are poor. This table proclaims death is not the end. Poverty is not the end. That's not the measure of your life, Jesus rose, and he's going to return again, and then everything's different. Eberhard Arnold is an early church scholar, wrote a book called The Early Christians in Their Own Words. He says that one of the favorite worship postures of the early church, one they would use when they sang, and one they would use in communion, was to worship with their arms outstretched, but not this way, not like we do it. They would do it this way, horizontally, imitating the posture of the cross. For them, it was, he said, the ultimate posture of triumph. The cross, what looked and felt like death, was part of God's great triumph in eternity. The gospel says to the poor or the sick, you're not going to be poor or sick forever. Jesus is going to return in triumph, and then you're going to feast at the marriage supper of the lamb, and there will be no more pain and no more crying. The gospel says to the oppressed, you're not going to be oppressed forever.

17:09 The righteous judge is gonna return and he's gonna make all things right. To the lonely and to those who feel abandoned, it says, I will never leave you or forsake you. I've just gone to prepare a place for you and I'm gonna come again and take you into my home where you will be with me forever. This table proclaims that in our hardship, like Jesus's cross, we are experiencing the good plan of God, him bringing that into the world. So he says, don't look down on the poor. They're not poor because they did something wrong or because they weren't good enough to make it, Jesus was poor. And that was all part of God's good plan. Fourth, this table proclaims that this church is first and foremost a community of the forgiven. If the above is true, that we all need to be saved and that all of us can be saved and that poverty and suffering are not the measure of our lives, riches are not the reward for the righteous and poverty is not the curse for the unrighteous.

18:03 These are just temporary states that God has assigned to us to bring salvation into the world. soon to be overturned by his coming, that ought to create a profound sense of equality around this table. Am I right? Religious pride has no place at this table. Where is boasting, Paul says. We are first and foremost sinners who have been redeemed. For by grace, he said, we've all been saved through faith, all of us. And not even that was from ourselves. Even that was the gift of God. It's not of works so that nobody has any room to boast. All our best righteousness, the prophet what Isaiah said. It's just like a filthy diseased rag. The best thing you can think of that you've ever done in God's sight, like a filthy diseased rag. The blood of Jesus is the only hope for the best of us and the certain hope even for the worst of us. The Lord's Supper was fashioned after the Passover meal the Jews celebrated. In the Passover, the Jews reflected on the fact that they were all slaves until God delivered them. There were no classes of slaves. They were not rich slaves or poor slaves or good-looking slaves, well-educated slaves, ugly slaves, just slaves who needed to be freed. Race or pride has no place at this table. Classism has no place around this table.

19:16 In God's eyes, we're one class, poor, wretched, helpless, and blind when he saved us. If you've seen the movie Titanic, you know that the whole boat was divided up into class sections. Rich people appear, poor people down there. One could not get to the other. Jack and Rose can't be friends. They have to eat in separate dining rooms, hang out on different decks. This next part wasn't in the movie, but after the Titanic sank, and back in America, people were wondering if their loved one who had been on the boat had been rescued or drowned. The New York Times printed two columns of passengers, and the only headings were lost and saved. There were no other distinctions, because in that moment, that's all that mattered. Wasn't first-class lost, first-class saved, just lost and saved. Everything else was inconsequential. At this table, we recognize that at our core, we are sinners that God saved. Pride and classism does not exist around this table. Racial division has no place around this table. Yes, God created the various ethnicities of the world as a panoply of his beauty. But in our most fundamental sense, we're all the same.

20:24 At our most fundamental level, there's only one race, the human one. Men and women made in the image of God. We all got the same problem, sin. We all have one hope, the blood of the resurrection of Jesus. That by itself should have destroyed racism at its core. Jesus didn't die as a white man or a black man or a Latino. He died as the representative of all humanity. And when he was raised from the dead, he wasn't raised as a Jew or a Greek or a white man or a black man. he was raised as the Lord of all mankind. One of the biggest failures of the church in America was that in large part, the church, at least the majority part of the church, did not lead the way in the civil rights movement. And we should have. Because of all people, we had the gospel that taught us that we're all equal. The Lord's table by itself should have destroyed all that. one race of people made alike in the image of God with one common problem, sin, and a common hope, Jesus. Dr. Clarence Jordan, who was a Baptist preacher in Sumter County, Sumter County, Georgia in the early 1960s, he said it this way. He said, the thing that breaks my heart, the thing that breaks my heart is that the Supreme Court is coercing pagans to act more Christian than the Bible is compelling Christians to act like Christians.

21:47 I can hardly stand it when I see the integration struggle being fought, not in the household of God, but in the buses, the depots, and around Woolworth tables. We're arguing about whether or not we can sit down and eat hamburgers and drink Cokes together when we ought to have been sitting around Jesus' table drinking the wine and eating the bread together. Listen to this. The sit-ins never would have been necessary if Christians had been sitting down together in church at Christ's table all those many years. The gospel is a sermon. It is a proclamation that destroys all these divisions. Second word, participation. Proclamation, participation. At the Lord's table, we participate in the body of Christ. Now, technically, the word participation does not occur in this chapter, but it's implied in verse 27 when Paul warns people not to participate in these things in an unworthy manner. Because if we do, he says, you're actually sinning against Christ's body. You are literally touching something holy, the symbols of the death of Jesus, while your heart is in a posture of rejecting it. I use the word participation because in the chapter right before this one, chapter 10, Paul does use the word participation.

23:01 Check it out. Verse 16, chapter 10, 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? Participation means fellowship. You are mingling with the presence of Christ. His presence is touching you in a special way. There are two ways that Christians go wrong with this. You ready? About to jump into the theological deep end of the pool. The first is where Christians overread this, believing that the bread and the cup become the actual body and blood of Jesus as we eat it. It's called transubstantiation. The bread and the cup literally transform into Jesus's flesh and blood, his actual DNA, as you ingest them. But that is not what Paul is saying here. The righteousness and the presence of Christ are given to us not through eating, but through faith.

23:58 What does Romans 10, 10 say? For with the heart, man believes unto righteousness. With the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. Righteousness did not come to you by getting wet in the baptismal tank or by eating bread or drinking wine. How did righteousness come into your life? By believing the word of God, by trusting in Christ and confessing him as Lord and Savior. Communion is not some kind of extra grace blessing that goes beyond the righteousness of Christ imputed to you when you trust him. You don't eat it and get a little bit more holy. When you trusted in Christ, you got the full righteousness of Christ right there, not a down payment that you supplement with communion or other sacraments. That's one way to go wrong. And the same way, by the way, let me add this, the presence of God was also given to you through faith. That's what Paul says in Galatians. Let me ask you only this, he says, did you receive the spirit, the presence of God? Did you do that by the works of the law or by eating communion or did you do it, did you receive him by hearing with faith?

24:55 Did you receive the spirit by taking communion or by hearing the gospel and believing it? And Paul's answer is you did it because you heard the gospel. You received him that way. You received the spirit the same way you were given righteousness, by believing the gospel. You got all of his presence when you trusted in Christ. So communion brings neither the righteousness of Christ nor his presence into you, because both of those were given to you fully when you accepted Christ. These things, the bread and the cup, are just symbols of the body and the blood, not his actual body and blood. But that leads to the second error that Christians often make with communion, and they see this whole ceremony is just symbolic. Just walking through some rituals that help illustrate the gospel. Paul says that in communion, listen to this, we are actually participating in Christ. We are experiencing his presence in a special way. His presence in these moments is here in a very unique way.

25:50 Now you say, but isn't he always here? I mean, like isn't he omnipresent? Isn't he always in my heart? Yes, but he manifests his presence in special ways at different times, and communion is one of those times. You've maybe experienced this in your life. My favorite illustration of this is me walking along the sidewalk with one of my kids when they were young. Say it's Raya, okay? This is when I would look down as a dad, this is what I would see. How do you resist that? And I'd pick her up, and I'd spin her around, and I'd blow raspberries in her neck, and I would say, who's daddy's girl? And she'd say, oh, daddy, you're so silly. And okay, in that moment, was she any more my daughter than she was the moment before? No. Did I love her any less the moment before I picked her up? Was my presence any farther away from her before I picked her up? No.

26:41 But in that moment, when I picked her up and I hugged her, she felt my presence in a special way. So that's what happens in communion. His presence manifests itself. His arms are even closer. If you quiet your heart, you can feel the squeeze of your heavenly father. Maybe you can hear him whispering his promises in your heart. You can feel his delight over you as he dances over you with singing and rejoin and assures you that you are his child, promising you that he will never leave you or forsake you. So in this moment, it's not just proclamation, it's also participation. But see, that raises the stakes a little bit, doesn't it? If he's here in a special way, that raises the stake, which leads me to word number three, examination. Examination. Verse 28, let a person therefore examine himself for whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will be guilty concerning desecrating the body and the blood of the Lord. This is why many of you are sick and ill. Many of you have actually died.

27:45 now listen to me paul warns that eating and drinking from this table unworthily brings judgment onto you when you touch the bread and the cup in an unworthy manner because christ's presence is here in a special way you can actually bring god's anger on you in a special way because the stakes are raised with his presence so is the demand that we come into that presence with the right attitude. Coming into his presence unworthily can bring God's discipline, his judgment onto you. So he asked, well, what exactly does it mean to eat unworthily? I mean, it can't mean that we should only take communion when we feel worthy of Christ's presence, because that would be never. None of us are worthy to take the bread and the cup. That's why we take the bread and the cup because we're not worthy. None of us are worthy of his presence. Jesus said that at our best, on our best day, when you're having the longest righteousness streak you ever had, 18 days without a sin or whatever, you are still an unprofitable servant. Even though we're forgiven, we have more corruption in our hearts than we could possibly comprehend. So it doesn't mean only eat when you feel worthy. So what does it mean? Well, notice that unworthily is written as an, what part of speech is that? Adverb. You say, well, what difference does that make?

29:08 It's an adverb in Greek. Unworthy as an adjective would describe you. We've already said that you're always unworthy to participate in Christ. Paul's focus is not on you, it's on something different. He's talking about how you approach the table. You can approach this table unworthily. What does that look like? Give you three qualities here. A spirit of self-righteousness. You don't realize how dependent you are on Christ's mercy, what's represented here. You don't see how your only hope is the body and blood of Jesus. You think you're good enough that God approves of you because of your good works. The irony is that you approach this table unworthily when you fail to see how unworthy you are to partake of this table. If you know you're unworthy, then you're approaching this table worthily. If you think you are worthy, then you are approaching this table unworthily. You want to approach it worthily, then understand how unworthy you are. Does that make sense? I mean, how could it not?

29:59 Secondly, okay, a spirit of defiance. Spirit of self-righteousness, spirit of defiance. If you partake of this table, when you know that you're not submitted to Christ, that is, you are openly and intentionally living in a way that you know displeases him. You're engaging then in the very lifestyle that put Jesus on the cross. Y'all think about it. In taking the bread and the cup, you're saying, thank God for Jesus and his death. It's my life and it's my hope. but then with your life, you are openly crucifying him. With your mouth, you're celebrating his cross while practicing the lifestyle that put him on the cross. You cannot shout worship him and crucify him at the same time and not expect God's anger.

30:46 Friend, I say this with all humility. Do not touch the elements of this table if you are not surrendered to Christ. I don't mean if you're struggling with sin. or overwhelmed by your sin. Jesus came for people like that. His death is help and healing for those who know they're sick. What I mean is do not touch the bread and the cup if you know that there's some area you refuse to submit to him, some relationship you're in right now that you know he does not want you in, but you're like, I don't care what he wants, I'm gonna do it anyway. Don't add to your condemnation by hypocritically saying, thank you, Jesus, for your death while stubbornly doing the very things that put him on the cross. Keep your rebellious, treasonous hands off those elements. It is dangerous for you. You eat unworthily with the spirit of self-righteousness, spirit of defiance. Here's the third one, a spirit of division. This, I believe, is most properly what was in Paul's mind when he said, don't come to this table unworthily, because that's the context of the passage, right? That's the setup. Verse 33, he concludes by saying, therefore, my brothers and sisters, when you come together to eat, welcome one another. That's how you do this in a worthy manner. Don't come in when your heart, in your heart you're separated from others by some kind of pride or classism or racism. Don't come when you harbor resentment or unforgiveness in your heart.

32:08 Do not come claiming to cherish the forgiveness of Christ when you refuse to forgive somebody else. Don't come in when you are divided from your brothers and sisters over some secondary or some non-essential matter, a political perspective, or a cultural bias. Let me make it real. Some of you should not take this table because you're more Republican than you are Jesus, or you're more Democrat than you are Jesus. And here's why I say that, because you cannot stand being around anybody who approaches politics differently than you, even if they love Jesus like you and you agree on all the essentials, the authority of the Bible, what it teaches about morality or being pro-life or whatever. You agree on all those things, but because they bring a different perspective or a different set of priorities with them when they come into the polls you resent them truth is you hate them you wish they just go to another church and if they don't well you're thinking you probably should go to a different church do not touch this table if you harbor divisions and resentments that are unbefitting of the body of christ that is eating in an unworthy manner jesus put it this way in the sermon on the mount if you're offering your gift to the altar and you got division with your brother in christ leave your gift before the altar and go reconcile with him. First, he said, be reconciled with your brother and then come offer your gift. Paul's saying the same thing. First, feel that sense of unity with your brothers and sisters and let that be reflected in your attitude toward them and how you behave toward them and how you fellowship with them and only them partake of these elements.

33:40 What happens if you don't? What happens if you disregard the body? If you disregard the lordship of Christ, what happens if you eat from the table unworthily? Well, Paul said in verse 30, didn't he? That's why some of you got sick and some of you have died. You say, what does that mean? Well, what's that a metaphor for? Y'all, there's no way to sugarcoat that. Paul means that a lot of people in the Corinthian church had gotten sick and died for not taking that moment seriously. Now, y'all, thank God that not everybody who's ever participated in communion unworthily died shortly thereafter. Doesn't always happen, but Paul says that sometimes it happens, and that should at least show you how God feels about those who don't take this sacred moment seriously. The theologian D.A. Carson tells the story of a pastor friend who had a church of about 200. He said sin was so rampant in that church, he said, I couldn't even discipline. I couldn't even confront the sin because the leadership was involved in a lot of the sin, and they didn't want to do anything about it. Pastor prayed for three months. He said, God, either change the hearts of people in this church or move me out of this church. The next year, this pastor said he had 34 funerals. 20% of the church died in the space of a year. The year after that, he baptized 200.

34:58 Now, does that always happen? No. And in many ways, thank God. In his mercy, God doesn't always do that. But Paul says the fact that it happens sometimes should make you realize how seriously God takes this. Don't we see a similar thing happen in Acts 5 and Ananias and Sapphira come into the church with their offering and they lie about the offering? Remember this story? They told everybody we're bringing the whole price of the land that we sold and then when in fact it was only half. The sin was not in bringing half. The book of Acts makes that clear. They were free to do that if they wanted. The sin was lying to the church and to God about what they were doing. Now, again, thank God, you should say amen to this, that he does not strike dead everybody in church who exaggerates their giving or gives to look good in front of others. What a moment that would be every Sunday morning. Campus pastor says, take out your phone and text give to 33933. And somebody thinks, I'll just pull out my phone so people think that I'm giving, even though I'm really just starting my wordle game for the day.

35:50 And we start seeing the glow of lights and then hear people keeling over dead all over the auditorium. God does not strike dead everybody who exaggerates their offerings in church, but Acts 5 gives you a glimpse into how he feels about people who posture and lie and are phonies in church. Worship is a deadly serious thing. How does God feel about those who take this bread and cup and say, I'm thankful for this bread and cup? This is my salvation. This is my salvation. All the while harboring in their heart the very sin that put Jesus on the cross or relishing in sinful resentments against their brothers and sisters that Jesus died to make into one family. Y'all, this is supposed to be a moment of incredible gospel clarity, where the church puts on visible display the unity of the body that Jesus died to create, where we declare our common hope in Jesus is more important to us than any secondary thing that divides us. It's supposed to be a time of togetherness, not just where we feel connected to God, but we feel connected to each other. J.I. Packer, who is the late Canadian Anglican theologian. Always said that for that reason, whenever he is in church for communion, he'd always sit close to somebody, even if he didn't know who they were. He said, just as a matter of principle, I'll always sit close to somebody at communion, because this is supposed to be a moment of family, of connection to others, not just to God. It's you, not just you and God, it's you and God's other children. This is why, if I could say this gently, for those of you who are joining us from home. Still, I want you to know there's something profound that you are missing out on and not being with your brothers and sisters. I know, I know that some of you have medical reasons to stay separate. We suspended meeting in big groups on the weekend for a lot of 2020 for that reason, so I get it. But you need to at least be aware of what you're missing, and you should be seeking to get out of that situation and get back into the presence of your church family as soon as you can. I say that without apology. I say that because I hear people say, oh, I just like, I love someone online. I like getting up and coming downstairs in my pajamas and sitting on

37:58 the couch with my kids and watching church. It just works better for our family. Church at home can be substitute for church in an emergency, but it's not church. Church is being with the body, particularly for moments like this. When I'm away, when I'm traveling and I'm away from my wife, Sometimes I look at her picture because I miss her. Even better, sometimes I'll FaceTime her. But looking at a picture of her and talking to her digitally, a digitally represented image of her is not the same thing as being in her presence. And if you think it is, I would say that you do not understand marriage. Dialing into church online is fine in an emergency, but if you think it's the same thing as church, I would say you don't understand what church is.

38:43 I started this message with college basketball. Let me end there. I've told you before that I love going to local college basketball games where the whole crowd is united and cheering for the same team. Cameron Crazies, NC State Wolfpack, UNC, Eagle Pride, whatever, whatever. It doesn't matter to me. People say, who do you cheer for in those moments? I cheer for the team of whoever gave me the free tickets. But I love those moments because you can look around the moment, the room in that moment, and you see a lot of these people who would be divided on a million other topics. But in that room for 90 magical minutes, they are united around the importance, the greatness of Duke basketball or NC State basketball or UNC basketball. When things go well for your team in a crisis moment, right? You're hugging and high-fiving random people. That's how much commonality you feel in that moment. That is at least partially what the gospel should be like in a moment like this. We're just so overwhelmed by Jesus, that all the other differences seem less relevant. When we come to church, our commonality in him outweighs any secondary perspective or preference. So brothers and sisters, let's take the Lord's table together. This is our unity. Now the bread and the cup that you got when you came in don't look like this. That's partially because of COVID. So you better get started opening it because you're going to need at least the next five minutes to figure out how to open that little thing.

40:11 as you're getting those out let's let's first do what the apostle paul said let's examine ourselves could you bow your head with me friend do you recognize christ as your only hope of salvation if you never have before you can do it right now i have no hope but you lord jesus my hope is built on nothing less but jesus blood and righteousness it's a gift offered to you right now you can receive it right now how about this are you fully surrendered to him i want to be clear i don't mean do you not struggle with sin anymore i still struggle with sin all the time. What I mean is right now, are you defiantly living with some sin that you know is wrong, but you just say, no, I'm not going to change that. Friend, if that's true, don't touch the bread or the cup. It's dangerous for you. And if you don't yet know Christ, it's going to tell you, don't take these things. You're still like on a journey. That's fine. Just don't take them yet.

41:15 These are a sermon. You don't preach the sermon before you believe it. but listen to this sermon being preached all around you this morning what you can do is as this sermon is preached as these people take the bread and the cup you can receive the grace that is being offered to you in christ if you'll just receive christ by faith his blood will wash away your sin his presence will fill you trust christ as your savior right now. A new life in him will be yours. One other question to examine yourself. You harboring some resentment, some division against a brother or sister? Reconcile with them right now in your heart. Forgive them. You might even need to hold off taking these things and go make things right with them. Just whatever you do, do not be hypocritical when you take the bread and the cup, hating or looking down on somebody else that Jesus died to save and has put into your family is to eat unworthily.

42:15 Examine yourself. now I want you to take this bread take the bread this represents the body Jesus said that is broken for you it's forgiveness it's healing it's God's presence the symbols of that receive it and do it often you knew we'd be prone to forget to do this often and when you do it remember me In the same way, Jesus said, this is the cup. this is non-alcoholic grape juice. Don't email me, okay?

43:12 This cup represents our future. It represents our hope. It represents our unity. Paul said, when you come, think about the fact that the best of us, this is our only hope, and the worst of us, this is our certain hope. Let us love as we've been loved, as often as you take it, he said, do it in remembrance of me. so i'm at church at all of our campuses would you stand let's worship together with the sense of family that god has created in us