What Does Your Worship Reflect?

This week we are looking at a section of a letter in our Bibles that reveals that Christians act unchristian when we worship with division. But why does the Bible talk about division in very negative terms? And why does Paul talk about division so much? Fortunately for us, we see Paul answer these two questions and see two things that occur when a church worships with division. We see the first thing that can occur in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26:

For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me." In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.

In these verses, we see Paul address the problem of the division in the church of Corinth and its negative impact on their worship, image, and influence by bringing the members of the church, and us here today, to communion’s true meaning. And these verses reveal the reality that when we celebrate communion in community, we are doing two things.

First, when we celebrate communion, we are publicly proclaiming the message of the gospel. Communion brings us back to the cross, when Jesus allowed Himself to be treated as though He lived our selfish and sinful life so that God the Father could treat us as though we lived Jesus perfect life.

Second, when we celebrate communion in community, we experience the Lord’s presence in a more powerful way. Just as a worship song may cause us to experience the Lord’s presence in a more powerful way though our voices: just as listening to a sermon may cause us to experience the Lord’s presence in a more powerful way though our ears: when we take the bread and cup, we experience the Lord’s presence in a more powerful way visually as we proclaim the message of the gospel in community.

Communion is a visual portrayal and remembrance of what Christ did for us some 2000 years ago. The words “do this in remembrance of me” conveys the idea of reminiscing or reliving what Christ did and its implications on our daily life within community. This morning it is communion that brings us back to the cross. It is the cross that unites us with Christ and it is the cross that unites us with one another in community as part of His body, the church. In verse 25 we see the words “this is the cup of the new covenant in my blood”. This new covenant is the covenant which brings us personal forgiveness of our sin and the personal indwelling of the Holy Spirit that the prophet Jeremiah foretold over 500 years before Jesus death in Jeremiah 31:31-34;

"The time is coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them," declares the LORD. "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest," declares the LORD. "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."

The cup of the new covenant shows God fulfilling His promises to all “from the least to the greatest”. Do we remember that the same price was paid for all of us in order to rescue us from our selfishness and sin? Do we remember that Christ died for the rich and the poor? Do we remember the words of Galatians 3:28?;

There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

And because we are all united as one in Christ Jesus, it is the centrality of Christ that draws us to the community that we celebrate in communion. We are drawn not only to connection and communion with God; we are drawn to connection and community with one another. And communion serves as a reminder of the connection and community that we were created for.

The members of the church at Corinth, however, misunderstood the meaning and significance of communion, instead choosing to make church a social club that was divided due to socioeconomic status. And once again, we see the members of the church at Corinth were more focused on what divided or separated them than they were on what united them in Christ. And in the same way, when we worship with division, we fail to reflect the message of the gospel.

So what is reflected when your church comes together to worship?