Well good morning church family. Over the past three weeks we've been studying
the doctrine of the Eucharist and we've been asking a few important questions.
First of all, what does the Bible teach about communion? Second of all, how has
the church approached that subject over the past 2,000 years? And then third, what
is our conviction here at Oak Hill about how the Lord's Table should be practiced?
Now if you were with us last Sunday you know that we spent about 30 minutes
talking about what I called the river of Reformation that started to flow in the
early 16th century. And we looked at the four major streams that came out of that
river both in Europe and then eventually coming over to America. And those four
streams were the Lutherans, the Anabaptists, the Classic Reformed which
of course included both the Swiss and the Dutch Reformed and the Scottish
Presbyterians, and then finally the Anglicans or what we call the Church of
England. Now a few of you reached out to me last week because you noticed there
was something missing from our history lesson and you were right there was one
big missing piece and some big names that were left out so good job for
noticing. So today we're gonna fill out the picture by looking at the one thing
I didn't touch on last Sunday and that is the evangelical movement. And of
course that's sort of ironic because many of us would say that's our tribe
within the Christian world. So here's the question, what is evangelicalism and
where did it come from? Well it's an interesting study because it has quite a
substantial history and yet it's really difficult to nail down an exact
definition of what an evangelical is. Now the main reason for that is that
evangelicalism has been referred to as trans-denominational, meaning it goes
beyond typical denominational lines. So technically you could pull together in
one room a Baptist, a Presbyterian, a Lutheran, and a person who calls
themselves non-denominational and they could all say we're evangelicals and
that can be confusing. Now the word itself comes from the biblical word for
gospel in the original Greek language it's pronounced eungelion. So in a
purely definitional way an evangelical is a person or a church that's primarily
concerned with the gospel. So that's a good thing right? By the way the concept
does stretch all the way back to the Reformation not in a formal way but in
this sense. Some of the earliest reformers were said to go about
gospeling people. That's the phrase they use, gospeling them as they shared the
good news about salvation by faith alone. So back in that day the word was used as
a verb but it was the English Puritans who truly began to embody the word
evangelical itself. They were the ones who actually brought it across the
Atlantic to our shores and then as the Puritan movement faded away the term was
picked up by other groups like Congregationalists and Baptists and
Presbyterians, all these different denominations that were established in
the late colonial period. Then we come to what's known as the First Great
Awakening which took place in the 1730s and 1740s and most historians pinpoint
this moment as the truest root of the evangelical movement. Some of the
greatest preachers in history were active in this time, Jonathan Edwards and
George Whitefield in particular. And in those days many Christians had fallen
into an overly formal sort of mechanical faith and it was this old-fashioned
town-to-town revival work done by men like Edwards and Whitefield which woke
early Americans out of their slumber. Thus we have the term awakening. It
woke them up. Now interestingly the First Great Awakening was marked by
Calvinist theology which had been passed down by the Puritans but the American
Church would soon shift towards a different perspective towards an
Arminian view of salvation which interpreted the spread of the gospel in
America as a man-centered event combined with a free will response. Now some of
that was driven by John Wesley, very famous name, and his highly structural
view of the Christian life which became known as Methodism. Today we have the
Methodist Church. Wesley focused on developing a step-by-step method of
achieving holiness and that's where we get the Methodist Church today. Then came
the Second Great Awakening about 50 years after the first and just prior to
the Civil War. Charles Finney was the primary man who was responsible as the
spark of the Second Awakening. He was a strong proponent of Arminianism and he's
often credited with being the inventor of what we call the altar call. And like
Wesley he believed strongly in the idea that a Christian could grow to become
spiritually sinless and perfect in his lifetime. Then there were men like
Barton Stone and Thomas and Alexander Campbell who took the gospel west into
the expanding frontier and they put an emphasis on simplifying the faith
launching a movement that today is known as the Church of Christ. So even though
preachers in both of those two awakenings had differences in theology
and came from different denominational backgrounds, their efforts collectively
are said to be evangelical. So looking back the word evangelical becomes
synonymous with a few basic principles. Number one, the idea of Holy Spirit led
revivals. Number two, the authority of the Bible. Number three, an emphasis on being
born again. And number four, the urgent need for evangelism and missions. And as
a result of that fourth emphasis the 19th century became known as the great
century of global missions led by evangelicals. So missionaries were sent
forth from both Europe and America to faraway places like India and Burma and
China. So missions were huge in that time plus during this period you had Christian
publishing that became a force for the gospel through mass production of
books and also gospel tracts. Now in the midst of all this gospel activity a
series of challenges also rose up in the middle of the 19th century. Charles
Darwin published his Origin of Species in 1859 and so this this push towards
evolution then drove what came to be known as a period of higher criticism of
the Bible. That was a very aggressive secularism that stood in judgment over
the scriptures calling into question everything from biblical miracles to
the life of Jesus himself. And sadly that higher criticism movement produced all
kinds of variant streams of liberal theology. Now there was pushback against
this and that came from a variety of evangelical sources including Dwight
L. Moody and his Bible Institute in Chicago and some brilliant scholars out
of all places Princeton University. You can't imagine that Princeton University
was once a gospel oriented school but it was. Charles Hodge and B.B. Warfield
brilliant scholars who defended and fought for the integrity of the Bible.
With the turn of the 20th century we have the Pentecostal movement which was
born right here in Los Angeles on Azusa Street in the year 1906 and then in the
1920s we saw a sharp split take place in the evangelical church that we are still
feeling today. Some Christians felt it was time to let go of biblical
inerrancy and embrace this new science of evolution and they moved away from
evangelicalism and historians call this the break between the modernists and the
fundamentalists. And the modernists matriculated into the mainline
denominations embracing various forms of liberal theology while the
fundamentalists stood firm in their evangelical ideas. Now the problem with the
fundamentalists was increasingly the world began to see them as angry and
hostile all the time and people started asking questions is that really what
Jesus has called us to be? Are we supposed to be separatists that go around
wagging our fingers and judging everyone and everything around us? And so after
World War II the pendulum swung hard back towards evangelicals who embodied a
much more positive upbeat image back to the idea of revivals and Crusades and of
course Billy Graham played a huge role in that movement. Plus you had magazines
being published now like Christianity Today and a huge outreach to
teenagers called Youth for Christ and so in that period evangelicalism once again
became popular. But then the culture took a very shocking and sharp turn away from
Christianity with the coming of the Vietnam War and the sexual revolution of
the 1960s. And what's interesting about church history here is when you take a
step back you begin to see that there's this constant action and reaction
tendency. We swing the pendulum culture goes this way the church goes that way
and it goes back and forth. So that chaos of the 1960s and into the 70s brought a
counter reaction among evangelicals in the form of a movement called the moral
majority led by Jerry Falwell Sr. and that was followed by a renewed emphasis
on restoring not just morality in public life but also restoring the concept of
biblical families. So we saw the formation of for example James Dobson's
focus on the family and the creation of what's called the Family Research
Council. Then came the 1980s everybody's favorite decade at least if you're my
age. A decade which saw a number of massive shifts in the evangelical world.
First of all there was the so-called charismatic movement that caught fire
and the charismatic movement was just Pentecostalism light and so it brought a
much more subtle and acceptable form of Pentecostalism into evangelical circles
and it began to penetrate that movement. With it came a renewed emphasis on
contemporary praise and worship music and most popular was the Great
Hillsong movement that came out and suddenly everybody in the church was
singing Hillsong songs. Then in the 80s and 90s produced what came to be known
as the seeker sensitive church movement through huge entertainment
based mega churches like Willow Creek outside of Chicago and Saddleback Church
in Orange County and the emphasis in the seeker sensitive movement was on the
church trying to meet people's felt needs. So the church felt like we need to
go out find out why people aren't coming to church and then then arrange our
church to meet those people's felt needs and the thinking was if you can draw
people into the church by meeting their needs using things like entertainment
and prosperity as the draw they'll keep coming back and eventually come to know
Jesus. Now that's a lot of history and most people don't know a lot about it
but today if you were to walk outside and ask the average person on the street
what is an evangelical he or she is likely to think first of all in terms
of politics. They will point to which political party we support and which
candidates we support and friends that is a very very sad development. Now last
Sunday I talked about how here at Oak Hill we are theological mutts. We don't
really belong in any one stream of the Reformation we're sort of a hybrid
church which is driven very simply by what the Bible teaches and our
conviction of how those principles should be lived out in the body and
because of the current state of evangelicalism in America we're not all
that enthusiastic about referring to ourselves in that way anymore. I mean
let's be honest most of the evangelical church today is a mile wide and only
about an inch deep and it has suffered greatly from decades of neglect in the
areas of doctrine of sound teaching and discipleship. Historically we've laid
aside this robust theology this rich history that we have and we've picked up
the tools of the world instead thinking they would be the thing to draw people
to Jesus. So we've dipped into entertainment and celebrity
culture and comfort and casualness and worldly standards of success and what
we've reaped from all that is a reputation that is not good. A reputation
for hypocrisy and a lack of seriousness. Some of that is deserved some of it is
driven by a hostile media but either way it's a great shame because there is so
much of what is good and biblical in evangelical history it just seems to be
like ancient history now. So as I said last Sunday what we want to be here at
Oak Hill is an independent Bible church that grabs hold of what is biblically
sound in our spiritual heritage and reject what has proven to be shallow and
unhelpful and by the way we've been doing that for about the past 10 years or so.
It hasn't been easy but we've been firming up what we believe in order to
become more biblical more attuned to church history and healthier as a body
and one of the ways we've done that is through our emphasis on membership and
our view of how the communion table should be guarded and that is where we're
going to spend the rest of our time this morning. So grab your Bibles and let's
turn to 1st Corinthians chapter 11. 1st Corinthians chapter 11. I'm not going to
read the whole passage together today because I'm short on time but I'll be
referencing some key passages in this chapter right between verses 17 and 34
so just keep your phone open. Alright, recall last week I laid out what takes
place when we come to the Lord's table. Specifically we talked about the
spiritual presence of Christ found in the signs that have been given to us the
bread and the cup and we talked about our posture towards the Lord when we
come to his table not as ashamed people bringing him an offering but as a
thankful people who receive gifts from his loving hand. So that was last week.
Today is about who should come to the supper and how they should come. That's
what Paul is talking about here in 1st Corinthians 11. Now keep in mind that
1st Corinthians was written as a corrective letter. Paul's doing two
things as he writes to the church in Corinth. First he was answering a series
of questions that have been posed to him about practical matters and then second
he was addressing some serious problems that had come up in the life of the
church. So a lot of this section of scripture is about rebuking and
correcting. Now one of the problems that he's addressing and it's a big one was
how communion was being administered and observed there in Corinth. Here's the
good news they were living out the sacrament as Christ had instructed but
the bad news was they'd strayed so far from its true meaning and purpose. In
fact this problem was so serious that according to Paul it had resulted in
drastic disciplinary measures on God's part. Because of their failure
some members of the church had grown weak and sick and others had actually
died. Think about that for a second. In a thinking world that kind of news
would bring a response like this. Wow how did the Corinthians fail here? Whatever
it was that should be our number one priority to make sure we don't fail in
the same way. And since it would result in actual death you had to think at the
time this must be the most serious of all matters right? It's got to be
something about murder or rape or kidnapping or or at least adultery right?
But the answer is no none of those things. Paul says that God has disciplined
his people physically even taken their lives for this reason. Because they had
come to the Lord's table and participated in an unworthy manner. And
therefore he says they are guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. This sin
whatever it is is so heinous that this failure it lumps people into the same
category as those who put Jesus on the cross. Think about that. So we better
figure out what this means. Whatever it is to come to the table in an unworthy
manner it requires serious consideration for both churches and for church
leadership right? I don't think we've done a lot of work on this. We haven't
really taken this seriously as we should. But we better get this right or get it
corrected if we're in error. So key question why was the Corinthians conduct
so offensive to God? The answer to that question lies in the true meaning of the
supper and in the Lord's great love for his body the church. So when you read a
passage of Scripture like this the best best thing to do when you're looking for
a reason is to look at what it actually says and then keep the main thing the
main thing and the main thing here has to do with the unity of the body the
unity of the body. So hear me carefully as I say this because it's a huge
misconception that many many Christians have today. The reason God disciplined
the believers in Corinth was not because they were spiritually unworthy to come
to his table. The reason behind God's severity was the distinct lack of unity
and love in that church. Let me say it again the distinct lack of unity and love in
that church was exemplified by their actions at the communion table. Look at
verse 17. Paul says, but in giving this instruction I do not praise you because
you come together not for the better but for the worse. For in the first place
when you come together as a church I hear that divisions exist among you and
in part I believe it. So underline that word divisions. Divisions in the church
cliques of people unresolved conflict between believers. Factionalism on
display in the midst of what should be one of the most sacred moments in the
life of the church. And Paul's language here is very strong he says like if
you're gonna act like this if what you're doing reflects what's truly in
your heart it would be better if you didn't gather at all. You're hurting
members of your own spiritual family your brothers and sisters in the Lord
and you're doing damage to the reputation of Christ and the testimony of
his church. It would be better if he didn't come together. Now drop down to
verse 20 he says therefore when you meet together it is not to eat the Lord's
Supper for in your eating each one takes his own supper first one is hungry and
another is drunk. That is shocking stuff isn't it? Your gluttony is showing Paul
rights your lack of self-control your inability to moderate your appetites and
all those things are immature and foolish absolutely but listen here's the
core of it you just don't care about each other. That's the core you care only
for yourselves. I'm hungry so I'll eat my fill. This wine is delicious so pour me
another cup. Your fellow church members don't figure into your decisions and
therefore he says you may think you're eating the Lord's Supper but you're not.
There's nothing supernatural nothing spiritual happening at all because you've
nullified its meaning and its power and then if you look a little deeper there's
something even more wicked happening beneath that raw self-centeredness. Look
at verse 22 he says what do you not have houses in which to eat and drink or you
do you despise the Church of God and shame or humiliate those who have
nothing. So now we see it's also an economic issue a class issue there in
Corinth. It seems that there is this upper crust of people the wealthier
elites in the church and they're arriving at the meal early and indulging
themselves without considering their poor members. These are the ones who
didn't have the freedom to arrive early at the meal probably people that are
working long hours blue-collar type workers working long hours or even some
who are stuck in indentured slavery. So imagine for a second already feeling
like a second-class citizen in the church because of your your economic
level and then you arrive excited for the the supper as soon as you possibly
can expecting to worship and fellowship only to find out that the others have
started without you. And now there's nothing but scraps left there is blatant
inequality going on in the church at Corinth and so this is appalling to Paul
and that's why he says do you despise the church strong language. So there's a
reason why early on in the life of the church James even warned about this very
very same thing he talked about favoritism in the worship service and
there's a reason why we have the story of Paul rebuking Peter. Remember Paul
wrote that prior to the coming of certain men Peter used to eat with the
Gentiles but when these Jews came he began to withdraw fearing a backlash
from them. So Paul says I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned he
was deviating from the truth of the gospel. So Paul viewed Peter's sin as a
blatant attack and affront to the gospel and he wasn't going to put up with it. So
that's the type of stuff that's happening here in Corinth. Now don't miss
this too this part of Paul's rebuke because it's often overlooked look at
verse 18 he says when you come together as a church that noun Ecclesia is
written in the singular a church that means he's describing the community
table as everybody together the whole body at one time together and that's the
pattern throughout scripture one body one gathering and that's reinforced if
you look down at verse 33 it's reinforced in this summary exhortation at
the bottom of the passage verse 33 so then my brethren when you come together
to eat wait for each other very simple right the question is how can a local
church was which is designed by God to be one interconnected body how can they
launch into a celebration of the Lord's Supper when only part of the church has
arrived and frankly in my mind that raises the question about large churches
today with multiple services they say they're one body and they they say we're
coming together as one and yet they don't even know each other because they
don't come together in one place okay let's talk about the self-examination
piece then in verses 27 and 28 because this is where Christians tend to get a
little bit confused they they they think they know what Paul's talking about but
they're often mistaken verse 27 says 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 here it is but a man must examine himself and in
so doing he's to eat the bread and drink the cup now the average Christian when
they read unworthy manner and must examine himself we immediately think of
our private personal sins we think about all the ways that God must be very angry
with us because we've fallen so short in our walk with him so our thinking usually
goes something like this okay we rub our hands we get all upset and we go before
I come to the table I better be all prayed up I better remember and confess
everything and be as pure as I possibly can before I partake otherwise I'm gonna
be judged by God oh and if I don't feel pure enough in that moment well then I
have to withdraw from the table and just let the elements pass by that's the way
we often think but there is a glaring theological problem with that way of
thinking notice that idea that I just mentioned it's not found anywhere in
first Corinthians 11 it's not there that is a self-imposed concept that has been
taught and retaught for far too long in fact it was taught to me and I believe
that for many many years and frankly for many Christians that has made the Lord
Supper a very joyless affair where we come and we beat ourselves up and we
wallow in shame rather than come to actually commune with the Lord and to be
nourished by him now as I shared last week I'm not saying that confession of
sin doesn't matter when we come to the table it certainly does what I'm saying
is is that repentance and confession is supposed to be an everyday thing a
moment-by-moment thing not just something we do when we come to the
Supper and by the way we dare not tread where the Catholic Church lives holding
to the idea of penance where the sinner before he can come to the table has to
go out and do a list of things to somehow work off their sin so that we're
deemed worthy to commune with God that is unbiblical no repentance is a
changing of the mind it's a coming into agreement with God about our sin and we
can do that in an instant when we look to him even as the elements are being
distributed we can cry out to God acknowledge our weakness and come to his
throne with confidence precisely because Christ gave up his body and blood for us
that's the truth our sin should drive us towards Christ not make us withdraw
because his table is for sinners like you and me and when we come to the table
we don't bring a sacrificial offering to God other than ourselves we are actually
the offering living sacrifices like the disciples in that upper room we allow
Christ to be the host of the meal and we receive gifts of grace from his hand
grace that reminds us of his love for us grace that reaffirms all of his promises
towards us grace that will nourish our souls and strengthen our faith and in
that sense we really do feed upon him spiritually as we partake in his body
and blood so let me summarize this is really important this warning in verses
27 and 28 is not about how deeply and thoroughly I can examine my heart in
relation to my personal sin and confession based on the context of this
chapter it is a warning to examine ourselves in relation to how we are
operating in the local body that is so important to know look at the verse next
verse verse 29 for he who eats and drinks eats and drinks judgment to
himself that's what we're afraid of right but look what it says if he does
not judge the body rightly well what body are we talking about here well
there's two bodies involved with the Lord's Supper right first of all the
sign of the bread points us to the reality of Christ's literal body which
is in heaven seated at the right hand of the Father and second his body here on
earth which is what the church so judge the body rightly Paul says that means
this understand what the meal points to Christ's body and then make sure you
understand the high value that Jesus places on his body on earth the church
so here's some good self-examination questions to ask when you come to the
table do I understand that the church is Christ's body and bride and therefore
deserving of the highest level of honor and respect does my life in the church
reflect an act of love for my brothers and sisters am I involved in a form of
division or part of a clique in my church am I holding on to a grudge
against another person in my church family am I living a life in the body
that is self-centered or other centered this is what Paul is trying to get at in
first Corinthians 11 these are the things that need to be repented of and
potentially repaired in a tangible way before partaking of the family meal so
this is why we let you know when communion is coming if you have two or
three weeks and you know it's coming you have time now to take whatever steps are
necessary to repair any divisions in the body now I realize that very few
Christians today would act like the Corinthians did in our text in the first
place we don't usually combine communion with a real agape feast where a full
dinner is served so you're not going to see Christians today gorging themselves
or getting drunk at communion but listen here's how we can fall into the very same
error we can wrongly come to believe that the Lord's Supper is just an
individual thing between me and God that's it so communion is when I come to
the table and I get right with God it's when I purify myself through confession
and then I go I try to picture Jesus taking the nails and bleeding on the
cross and then I feel bad and I thank him for his sacrifice oh and it's great
that there's others here with me but really the focus is on my worship and
on my relationship with the Lord that is not the picture Jesus drew for us in the
upper room and it's not the picture Paul is painting here in first
Corinthians 11 now again I'm not trying to say that the Lord's table has no
connection to the individual of course it does because we're all individually
responsible for our spiritual life with Jesus but a narrow individualist
mindset doesn't reflect the full picture of how we're to live out a life of
worship give you an example of this here's how you and I should think of our
time together when we walk into a church service like this morning here's what we
should be thinking the people around me today are my truest family and together
we make up God's people at Oak Hill our hearts are being knit together more and
more as we sing with one voice as we pray with one heart as we sit together
under the word being preached so that together we grow stronger as a spiritual
force in this community and beyond that's how we should be thinking now if
that was your mindset when you came in today I praise the Lord for that but to
be honest most Christians are closer to this mindset I wonder what I'm gonna get
out of the worship today I wonder what God's gonna show me in the sermon how am
I gonna be built up and encouraged that's the wrong mindset or it could be
worse I'm not comfortable in this seat I don't really like this song the sermon
isn't connecting with me or I'm annoyed by these people over there yikes right
see I think it's possible that some of the the first century Corinthians they
were attacked they were taken back by Paul's rebuke here because they were
blind to it my guess is some of them were thinking Paul what do you mean
despise the church we love this church this church is perfect for us I love the
way we worship I love our feasts I eat my fill I get I get to drink this all
fan why would we despise this church it's actually quite easy to become
blinded by our own self-centeredness and yes it's possible to love being a part
of Oak Hill to love coming to worship to love being part of church events and
still in the eyes of God despise his church because you put the priority on
yourself and you've neglected the body as a whole we should never lose sight of
the truth that together we are both the body of Christ and the bride of Christ
and if you're not actively cherishing the bride how can you say that you truly
love the groom okay so let's bring this back to the Lord's Supper know this in
the previous chapter in first Corinthians 10 Paul speaks of a loaf
that's broken at the Lord's table and he says this since there is one bread we
who are many are one body for we all partake of the one bread one one one
right so the entire church is to gather in unity is one body acting as one loaf
of bread without the leaven of division or strife in their midst here's part of
what that means that means that this meal is not for unbelievers it's not for
unbelievers now we love when unbelievers are here with us on Sunday morning in
worship we love when unbelievers come to our small groups during the week we
treasure those opportunities to show them Christ's love in those situations
but communion is altogether different it is set apart as a time of intimate
fellowship reserved only for those who are members of Christ as we say here at
Oak Hill it's a family meal so here's a logical question that follows everything
that I've shared thus far from this chapter how how can a church make sure
that we're coming to the Lord's table as one book as only believers with no
division no strife and that we don't defile the table and put the souls of
our people at risk how do we do that let me run that through again how do we come
together making sure that only believers are there that there's no division or
strife among us and that we don't defile the table and put the souls of our
people at risk how do we do that well I want you to imagine for a second being
the pastor of a church okay think about a typical communion Sunday morning
typical church imagine you're the pastor at the front and you're explaining
communion and the elements are about ready to go out now imagine you're the
pastor and you know your sheep really well okay you know what's happening in
the body and you give them this warning about making sure they judge the body
rightly right and you look out of your congregation and the elements go out and
they start getting past and what do you see well there's two people I know in
the back that are are hating on each other right now right there they have
unresolved conflict then there's this group up here and they're sort of
clickish I know they have a long-standing problem with this group
over here and I know that there's a guy here and a guy over there they're not
believers yet we're glad they're here but they're not believers and then
there's some new folks I see they're visitors I have no idea who they are or
what their spiritual condition is okay so I'm dealing with all that and there
go the elements and everybody's partaking of communion what do you do
as a shepherd you walk up and snatch the elements out of their hands and tell
them they got to go outside and then continue without them that would be rude
well maybe you just give that warning and you hope for the best right hope
that they'll heed the warning but the reality is in my experience is they
don't if they're spiritually unhealthy or they're spiritually mature they're
not going to let those elements pass by and a big part of that is because if they
let it pass by and people see it it's grounds for juicy gossip like hey how
did why did those two people allow it to pass what's their sin and so most folks
will participate in the elements even if they know they shouldn't simply
because of peer pressure now you might say well that's on them but that's not
the heart of a shepherd the true shepherd is always looking to defend and
protect the sheep under his care I cannot stand by and pretend that that's
not happening that people are eating and drinking judgment upon themselves and
I'm allowing it by not overseeing the table as a shepherd in the church so to
kill we want to provide oversight to communion in such a way that the
following things take place number one again only true believers are present
number two the entire body comes to the table as one without division or strife
and number three that the sheep are all protected from eating and drinking
judgment upon themselves now imagine this is a solution what if a church were
of the right size where the shepherds had the ability to know their sheep well
and to know what was actually happening in their lives what if the shepherds
were so deeply involved in body life that they were aware whenever conflict
came up that they could help to facilitate reconciliation before the
next communion service and what if the sheep made a formal commitment to submit
to their shepherds and to put the needs of others before their own and what if
these shepherds had a process by which they could carefully discern whether the
sheep are true believers or not question would those things be helpful in
preserving the Lord's table in a way that pleases God and builds up the body
here at Oak Hill we think it we think it does that's what we call guarding the
communion table guarding the table and this is something the church has always
done so we're not making this up at a whole cloth the early church the
historical record tells us that the table was carefully guarded in the first
400 years of the church we know that guarding the table was then reinstituted
by the reformers in their day and we know that it was standard practice among
the Puritans when they came over here to America in fact up until recent history
in the 20th century when things began to get squishy and casual the church was
always concerned with guarding the spiritual integrity of the Lord's
Supper and it's always been the responsibility of the shepherds to do it
so here at Oak Hill we take that historical charge seriously not because
the elder team wants to lord our power over others that's often we're accused
of that that we just want to lord our power no we do this out of biblical
conviction and out of love love first of all for Christ right to keep his
table pure but then love for the flock to protect them and to guide them in the
way they should go that is our calling as shepherds now here's the key the
means by which we do this is through membership everyone who comes to the
communion table at Oak Hill has walked through a membership process with our
elders they have committed themselves to every other member of the body through
a sign covenant so every person at the Lord's table is committed to living
life together every person is committed to unity every person is committed to
accountability every person is committed to living out the one another's of
scripture and committed to practicing forgiveness and reconciliation that's
what it means to be a member at Oak Hill and so we don't observe the Lord's table
on a Sunday morning because unbelievers might be present or visitors might be
with us we come to the table at a separate member communion service where
the shepherds can ensure the integrity of the supper is being maintained again
for the glory of Christ first and secondly for the protection of the flock
now I've heard people say many times I'm not sure I like this whole idea of
membership in the church Jeff feels very exclusive but guys membership is such a
strong biblical concept Romans 12 five says we who are many are one body in
Christ and individually members of one another
melos in the Greek member fusions 425 we're members of one another 1st
Corinthians 12 12 for even as the body is one and it has many members and all
the members of the body though they are many are one body later in verse 27 now
you are Christ body and individually members of it the verse prior to that if
one member suffers all the members suffer with it if one member is honored
all the members rejoice with it listen 17 times in 1st Corinthians 12 alone Paul
uses the word member so when people say I don't like this idea of membership in
the church my response is always you're gonna have to take that up with Paul so
listen so much more could be said about this topic the case for membership in
the local church is a worthy one but it is worth a whole sermon series in and of
itself but if you have any questions on that subject please don't hesitate to
reach out to me or to another elder we'd be happy to sit down with you over a
cup of coffee or a good meal and talk about what that means amen let's pray
together you