Many people know about the death of Christ and Salvation but they do not understand how to remember His death in a worthy manner. Before Jesus was crucified on Easter, He had the Lord’s Supper and commanded that His death be remembered.
1 Corinthians 11:23-25 NLT (23) For I pass on to you what I received from the Lord Himself. On the night when He was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread (24) and gave thanks to God for it. Then He broke it in pieces and said, "This is My body, which is given for you. Do this to remember Me." (25) In the same way, He took the cup of wine after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant between God and His people--an agreement confirmed with My blood. Do this to remember Me as often as you drink it."We remember Him unworthily because most of us do have a revelation of who Christ is and what He has done on Easter.
We have often misinterpreted 1 Corinthians 11:17- 31 thinking that people must first deal with sin before partaking in Holy Communion otherwise they get sick and die but that is not true (sin has been dealt with once and for all in Heb 7:27, so we wont go back to it now. Sin does not dwell on Christians even when they sin. Sin and the Holy Spirit cannot reside together in us). The Scripture is talking about the wrong way/manner in which Holy Communion, which is not remembering Christ the right way.
Historically Christians that Paul was writing to, had a love or fellowship feast/meal prior partaking of the Holly Communion (The Lord’s Supper). The Feast was a B.O.B ( bring your own Scaftini/food) and so, the rich had good and plenty than the poor. Some would even start eating before others and some not sharing (11:21).
Let me give you the whole portion of Scripture and then show you how we partake in Holy Communion in an unworthily manner. I will also comment on the revelation of who Christ is and what His death means to me to us remember Him in a worthy manner.
1 Corinthians 11:23-31 NLT (23) For I pass on to you what I received from the Lord Himself. On the night when He was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread (24) and gave thanks to God for it. Then He broke it in pieces and said, "This is My body, which is given for you. Do this to remember Me." (25) In the same way, He took the cup of wine after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant between God and His people--an agreement confirmed with My blood. Do this to remember Me as often as you drink it." (26) For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord's death until He comes again. (27) So anyone who eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. (28) That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking the cup. (29) For if you eat the bread or drink the cup without honoring the body of Christ, you are eating and drinking God's judgment upon yourself. (30) That is why many of you are weak and sick and some have even died. (31) But if we would examine ourselves, we would not be judged by God in this way.
John Wesley’s commented the following on verse 24 - 29: That is, this broken bread is the sign of my body, which is even now to be pierced and wounded for your iniquities. Take then, and eat of, this bread, in an humble, thankful, obediential remembrance of my dying love; of the extremity of my sufferings on your behalf, of the blessings I have thereby procured for you, and of the obligations to love and duty which I have by all this laid upon you.
V25: after supper - Therefore ye ought not to confound this with a common meal. Do this in remembrance of me - The ancient sacrifices were in remembrance of sin: this sacrifice, once offered, is still represented in remembrance of the remission of sins.
V27 : Whosoever shall eat this bread unworthily - That is, in an unworthy, irreverent manner; without regarding either Him that appointed it, or the design of its appointment. Shall be guilty of profaning that which represents the body and blood of the Lord.
Finis Jennings Dake listed the following 8 ways of partaking unworthily : taking it
- 1. In Envying and strife (divisions) ( v18)
- 2. In drunkenness and surfeiting (with a full stomach) (v21-22)
- 3. In disrespect of the poor and the needy (v22)
- 4. In irreverence to God and the Church (v22)
- 5. In unbelief, not realizing its true significance, and not discerning the Lord’s body and blood to receive the benefits of faith (v27-30)
- 6. As an unsaved man with sin in the life and without making proper confession and acknowledgement of personal needs (v27-30)
- 7. Without judging self so as to escape chastening from God (v31-32)
- 8. To commemorate a mere historical fact, as the Jews celebrated the Passover (v19)
The revelations that God gave me concerning remembering Him before I started writing the offering, where point 4 and 5. It is very important that we are all united regardless of church organisations, gender, social status, race, age e.t.c. If you partake without recognizing that you are equal and one with other Christians, then you partake unworthily. Therefore see Easter as a day that unite us.
If you have no revelation of the benefits of faith or what Christ has done for you, you partake unworthily. Christianity is not about morality. Do not examine yourself for sins, so that when you find out that you have been living a ‘holy’ life, then you think that you are worthy and therefore partake worthily of Christ’s death when you eat Holy Communion. It is not about us or sin but about what He has done on Easter.
Once when I was driving, God gave me a revelation of what He did on Calvary and I started weeping like a baby all the way until I reached home. It was heavy and usually I park on the side of the road and first embrace it. Sometimes He reveals it when I am worshiping. My revelation is that God persisted in choosing me among all the people that qualify and are proven and chosen by people. He rejected all of them who are good and He pointed at me even when I am evil saying, “this is the one I want and I am willing to die for it!”. Having my history with Him that He visited me and blessed me when I was high, drunk and after committing other evils, it humbles me. He spoke to me and blessed me. He has overridden all my religious knowledge and theology that people must go and be born again to be loved and blessed by God. I never chose Him, He chose me by force and blessed me by force. I didn’t have to do, I don’t and will never do anything to be loved by God like many people do. That’s why I never try to fit in what other Christians do or allow Christians to show me how to live, because God found me and I know Him personally. So, you must have your own revelation of the benefits that He deposited for you at the Cross. Don’t enjoy running around and doing what everybody is doing and feeling like that’s it; get your revelation and remember Him worthily!
PS
It is a joke to me when people debate about grace saying people sin because of grace. It’s non-sense! I even feel sorry for Paul when He writes to people telling them not to sin. Those people are not born again! Yes, I will say it again: they are not born again!
2 Corinthians 5:17-18 NLT (17) This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! (18) And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to Himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to Him.
This new person doesn’t feel comfortable when they sin. The new person inside will fight with the flesh (Gal. 5:17) for years because the flesh would be sinning but eventually the Spirit overcomes. The new person inside is actually Christ/body of Christ, so how can He enjoy sinning?
2 Corinthians 5:14-15 NLT (14) Either way, Christ's love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. (15) He died for everyone so that those who receive His new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.
Galatians 2:20 NLT My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
So, don’t tell me about people who sin and enjoy because of “grace”. Non-sense! it means they need Jesus, they must first be born again!
Psalms 130:4 NLT But You offer forgiveness, that we might learn to fear You.
People who understand what has happened in Golgota, fear the Lord for what He did for them. They can’t sin and enjoy. Those who sin and be confortable are not born again, they are what Jesus refer to as bad fish in Mat 13:47. They are with us but are not of us. They are like the weeds planted by the enemy among us, the wheat. So, we should not waste our energy and time on them.
My Friends, let us humble ourselves so that God reveals what He has done for us so that we worship and remember Him worthily.
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