The Lord’s Discipline in the Lord’s Supper

Dear Church Family,

In the adult Sunday school class, we have just finished the introductory portion of our series of lessons entitled “Church Membership 101.” This coming Sunday, we will begin our study of the five vows of church membership with the first of five vows in which we confess that we are “sinners in the sight of God, justly deserving His displeasure, and without hope save in His sovereign mercy.”

In our final introductory lesson, we talked about how followers of Christ and members of the church seek to grow in various areas of their personal spiritual life and their participation in the life of the church. One of the areas that we discussed at some length was participation in the Lord’s supper, particularly how when we partake of the Lord’s supper we are submitting ourselves to the grace of the Lord’s discipline.

Worthily Partaking of the Lord’s Supper: Two Examinations

In the Apostle Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth, he gives instructions for how they are to correct their abuses of the Lord’s supper. And, there are basically two things that he exhorts them to do:(1) Examine yourself: see to it that you come in repentance and faith (1 Corinthians 11:27-28)

²⁷ Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.

²⁸ But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

(2) Examine Christ: see to it that you judge the body rightly (1 Corinthians 11:29-30).

²⁹ For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly.

³⁰ For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep.

- To “judge the body rightly” could refer to Christ’s physical body or to the body of the Church (His people). Either way, it means that we must comprehend or discern Christ’s sacrifice for His people.

The Result of Worthily Partaking: the Grace of the Lord’s Discipline

If you come to the Lord’s Supper in a worthy manner, you will receive discipline from the Lord. If you come to the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner, you will receive condemnation from the Lord (1 Corinthians 11:31-32).

³¹ But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged.

³² But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world.

Here, Paul draws a distinction between discipline and condemnation. If you examine yourself and thereby come to the Table in repentance and faith, comprehending the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ and His substitutionary death for you then as you participate in this Supper, you will not be condemned along with the world. Instead, if you come in an appropriate manner – a worthy manner – then you will receive the benefit of the Lord’s discipline which is reserved only for those who are His for the Lord’s disciplines those whom He loves (Hebrews 12:4-11). [PAUSE]

Application

There is much more that we could say regarding these verses but let me make just one point of application from this brief overview. If you are a baptized member of the church who has been admitted by the elders to the table of the Lord’s supper then you should partake of the Lord’s supper whenever it is offered in the church.

Don’t cut yourself off from the Lord’s Supper because you have sin in your life. Don’t think that you have to clean yourself up first to come and eat the bread and drink from the cup. The Lord’s Supper isn’t the reward for those who have earned the crown. The Lord’s Supper is the means of grace by which we come and experience the discipline of the Lord so that we will not come under His condemnation. To not partake of the Lord’s Supper until you have eradicated all sin in your life – and good luck with that, anyway – would be like lying in bed with pneumonia waiting until you are better before you go see the doctor. If the Lord’s Supper is truly a means of grace, then it is a means of grace for people who need God’s grace.

Conclusion

You see, the purpose of the Lord’s supper is to help us grow in holiness as we seek to live as becomes the followers of Christ. In a very real and tangible way, through the process of participating in the Lord’s Supper, the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin, assures us of our forgiveness in Christ, and motivates us in our pursuit of holiness.

So, whenever we partake of the Lord’s supper, remember this: Examine yourself and examine Christ. Examine yourself, that you may come to the Lord’s Supper with a sincere heart in repentance and faith. And, examine Christ as you seek to comprehend and understand His death and resurrection, His death and resurrection which saves you from your sins and grants you eternal life with Him!

The Lord be with you! 

Pastor Peter M. Dietsch