We serve a God who is not autocratic or demanding to His people. However,
He is a God that is abundantly worthy of our full respect and worship. It
is grace that allows us to come boldly and confidently before His throne
without fear of negative consequences. But, it is also true that we serve
a God that deserves the best we have to offer. God’s desire is not to
coerce us into praising Him, but He wants His people to recognize, on their
own, His wonders.
Every Sunday churches gather for the stated purpose of worship. Some
worship does take place, however not everyone in attendance is actually engaging
in worship. Some are daydreaming, some are critiquing the service and
comparing what is done and said with what they want to be done and said,
while some are just simply disengaged or merely going through the motions and
doing it devoid of heart.
Unfortunately, these bad practices and states of mind carry into the most
sacred ceremony of the church – The Lord’s Supper. Some churches
celebrate it weekly, some monthly, and some quarterly. The Bible does not
say how often we are to have it, but it does clearly teach us the purpose
for the supper and it also clearly teaches the manner in which we are to
partake.
Early in my ministry I began to realize how important this time was for the
church. I strived to make sure people knew when it was going to take
place and made a special effort to encourage believers to be present with the
body of Christ for the ceremony. Sadly, I have not detected much special
effort being made to be present, beyond that of a normal Sunday.
When you think about the situation on the night Jesus instituted the supper,
you realize it was the most solemn of hours. He was about to be arrested,
go through a mock trial, be severely beaten, sentenced to death, atone for the
sins of human beings through His shed blood, be buried in a tomb, and on the
third day rise again. The Lord’s Supper was instituted on the Eve of the
most important events in all of human history. The New Testament church
was born out of what happened at that time. Therefore, partaking in the
Lord’s Supper is sort of like making a pilgrimage back to the house you grew up
in or driving by your old elementary school and smiling with nostalgia. Our
roots mean something to us, no matter our stage in life. For believers,
our “Christian” roots run deep. The practice of celebrating the Lord’s
Table is, and should be for everyone, a pilgrimage back to the basics of what
it means to be a child of God.
There are a number of ways we can dishonor the Lord’s Table and Paul warns us
about some of those in 1 Corinthians 11 where he addressed the troublesome
church at Corinth. He says if a person participates in an unworthy manner
he shall “be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.” Some may say, in
light of all the warnings, maybe it is better to stay home and not
participate. Taking this approach is looking for a safe middle ground
that does not really exist. It is saying, in effect, I do not really want
to give everything over to God and get right with Him, but neither do I want to
distance myself so as to give up the benefits of being a Christian, such
as Heaven or other perceived perks in this life.
For all believers there are dangers we are cautioned against. A
person can approach the Lord’s Table, for instance, ritualistically. It
is easy to focus on the ceremony itself, the solemnity, and overall manner
without focusing on the Savior. In other words, we can participate with
our bodies and not our minds and hearts. We can go through the “motions”
without experiencing the “emotions,” that heart-felt participation should
naturally bring. A person can further come with harbored sin in their
heart. This is an area of their life where they know they are not being
pleasing to God, but just simply will not deal with it or relinquish over to
Him. Another widespread problem in the church is seen when people have
ill feelings toward others in the church body. I never imagined the full
scope of this problem until I actually became a pastor. The destruction I
have personally witnessed caused from harbored ill feelings toward fellow
brothers and sisters in Christ over, often the most petty/trivial things, is
truly amazing. Almost daily I observe the consequences brought about by
unresolved conflict among those who are a part of the body of Christ. Coming to
the Lord’s Table without getting those things straightened out is a sin, and we
are not to come with unconfessed sin in our lives. To do so is dangerous
to us spiritually.
God may not strike a person dead if he/she partakes unworthily, but it is
almost certain He will not bless your life in the way He would otherwise.
Nothing else we do within the body by way of service or work compensates for
our disobedience when it comes to failing to practice and model
forgiveness. Coming to the Lord’s Table in a worthy manner conveys that a
person really does trust the Lord and that His power is greater than
human weakness. To come unworthily conveys that human weakness is somehow
greater than God’s power, which is simply untrue.
Participation in the Lord’s Supper is a proclamation about what God has done,
what God is doing, and what God will do in the future. In
fact, by partaking of the supper, believers are said to be “proclaiming the
Lord’s death” until He comes again. The greater the number of sincere
believers who gather to partake, the louder the proclamation tends to be to the
on-looking world. But if the proclamation is soft and weak, it is still
every bit as true, but it tends to not get the world’s attention in the way
that it is really supposed to do. It may seem strange, but even something
as seemingly simple as partaking of the Lord’s Supper and doing so in a worthy
manner is a bold witness to the world for Christ.
In this day, we need to unashamedly proclaim our trust in the
Lord. The culture has crumbled all around us and all believers need to be
in a state of readiness, knowing this is the battle of righteousness vs.
darkness. We are on the winning side, but you would not always know it by
how softly we whisper our proclamations. Partaking worthily of the Lord’s
Supper in this dark day in human history is highly important and also
comforting. It is an important part of our witness to the Lord and His
saving power, and will be so until He comes again!
In Christ,
Dr. Allen Raynor, Pastor
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