Proclaiming the Lord’s Death Till He Comes

Proclaiming the Lord's Death Till He Comes

This morning, I'd like for our Scripture reading to call your attention to 1 Corinthians chapter 11, please. So, if you turn there with me, as the Apostle Paul recounts the things that have been delivered unto him. 1 Corinthians chapter 11, let's begin the reading in verse 23. For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat, this is my body, which is broken for you, this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood. This do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come.

Wherefore, whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.

For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together, to eat, tarry one for another. And if any man hunger, let him eat at home, that ye come not together unto condemnation, and the rest will I set in order when I come.

If you haven't done so already, please mark your Bibles to that portion of Scripture in 1 Corinthians chapter 11. We are going to draw a truth from this passage this morning that I want to focus our hearts on. We are going to draw our hearts upon the message. So mark your Bibles to that portion this morning. And let's bow our heads in a word of prayer.

Our gracious Father, thank you for this ordinance that we will observe at the end of the service today. We pray that it will, even as we are now contemplating it, Lord, that our hearts will be prepared to partake worthily, not in the sense that we are worthy in and of ourselves, but in the sense that we are worthy in and of ourselves, but in the sense that we are worthy in and of ourselves, but in the sense that we are worthy in and of ourselves, but in the sense that we are in Christ and all is well between us and thee. We do not want to partake hypocritically. We want to partake worthily in that sense, Lord. In full consciousness of what it costs you to go to the cross, as full as we can have anyway, Lord, we can only begin to scratch the surface of understanding all.

And we do not know the motivation, Lord. We can't understand the motivation. We can't understand it because we are false and full of sin, but Lord, we know that thou art full of truth and grace and full of love that you sent your Son to this earth to die for sinners like us. And Lord, there needs to be an awe. There needs to be a wonder in our hearts even today as we approach this Lord's table that you would even love a sinner such as I. Thank you for that, Lord.

Thank you for all that you've accomplished through the work of the cross for our behalf and the benefits of that will extend into an eternity in your presence. Not an eternity separated from you because you can't look on sin, but because you've made a provision for us, those sinners, to be made spotless in the blood of the Lamb. Thank you for that, Father. Bless now as we continue in this worship service today. May we understand the Scriptures and apply them to our lives. May we be able to leave today truly being able to say it has been good to be in the house of the Lord. We have heard from your word. We've heard from you, Lord, and that we will have the strength and direction even as we go forward to please you as we go this week. We pray these things and ask them in Jesus' name. Amen.

I trust that the Lord will bless his word to our hearts this morning and God's word is made up of words. They are, we believe, inspired words that he's given to us, and every word, every jot, every tittle is important to our understanding. It's not just for our brains, you know, to fill our minds with knowledge, but so that we might walk in a way that is pleasing to him, so that we might be throughly furnished unto all good works. That's why he's given us. He's given us every word. He didn't put more in the Bible than we need. He didn't put less. He put exactly what we need to honor him and glorify him in our lives for having saved us from our sins, so that we might come to know him and that we might then show forth the praises of him that called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.

There is a verb here in this verse 26 this morning that has really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really stood out to me. It's the word show. Now, I wasn't alive in the 1600s. I don't know if they pronounced it shoe then. They might have in that day. And, you know, maybe I'll be corrected. I doubt we're going to be talking about that in glory when we get to heaven with the King James translators, but we're going to pronounce it show.

The word show here in verse 26, well, that word in various forms, that word in the English is found 398 times. 398 times, a number of times in our King James Bible. I understand that it is an archaic form of the S-H-O-W, show. For everything that I've looked at, that's my understanding of it.

And we think about the, the word show today, don't we? When we say, I want to show you something. Well, that usually means somebody's going to lead you into a room and they're going to point at something and they're going to show you something. Instead of telling you, don't we say sometimes, I'd rather show you. Instead of telling you, it would be better if I show you because, you know, maybe we might say a picture is worth a thousand words. A picture is worth a thousand words. And so I want to just show it to you. So when we say that, we want to, we want someone to see something. We're going to exhibit it for them so that they can see it with their own eyes. Sometimes when we see this word show, S-H-E-W in our Bible, it means just that, to exhibit something so it can be seen, right? In fact, there's a number of times where we see that in the scriptures. They're going to show you something so it can be seen. And it's not necessarily, it's not necessarily our words that we're describing something, like telling someone something, but it is showing them in the sense that they're able to look at it. They're able to observe it and they're able to come to a conclusion based on what they have observed, what we have shown them.

An example of that would be in Titus chapter three. If you want, please turn with me there for just a moment. Titus chapter three and verse number two. In Titus chapter three and verse number two, we read these words that Paul told Titus that he was to put them in mind, among other things, to speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, showing all meekness unto all men. Now, inevitably, that's going to include some of what we have to say, right? I mean, it's going to include that, but it's more in the bigger picture is talking about our manner of living. Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? By the way that you make apparent in the way that you live, with your hands and your feet and your spirit and how you live your life, meekness. That's to be seen. And it's not your meekness. It's the meekness of the Lord that's to be seen in you, in the way that you live by faith. You walk by faith.

And then in James 3.13. James 3.13. What does it say there? In James 3.13, James chapter 3 and verse number 13. It's here. We could turn to so many, but in verse 13, here's another example. The question asked, who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. Let him show. So, this is to demonstrate, to make something apparent by the way you live your life, right? By the way that you conduct yourself.

We use the phrase today, show and tell, don't we? Show and tell. You know, you're doing both things, right? You're showing and you're telling. You might be demonstrating how a product works and you're going to have to demonstrate. Let the product work in front of the people so that they can say, maybe these are potential buyers. This is how this works. I can tell you how it works. I can tell you the specifications of it. I can tell you all of its capabilities and all of this. Then I want you to see it. I want you to see how this thing works. Well, obviously my point is that show and tell in our understanding today, well, we have two different words because there's two different things that are going on here. When we are speaking of those concepts, something we tell people with our lips, but something we show them maybe with our lives.

But in our text, in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 26 here, it's interesting. I just mentioned this to make a comparison here. We saw recently, we were talking about an angel. An angel is a messenger, right? That's the idea. Angelos in the Greek. It's a messenger sent from God, right? And we see that this word in the Greek is katangelos. It's a word that is with a prefix on the beginning of the idea of giving a message, right? From a messenger. And so this word for show here, I only mention that because we might say, well, show, show, we don't normally think of, show as something that is a message being told, right? Well, in the old Oxford English Dictionary, I understand that in that dictionary, there is a definition that is given in that dictionary that was used. It's not used anymore for show. And of course, the word show itself, S-H-E-W in that form is not used anymore. But the understanding of that word was this, one of the definitions is to tell, to speak, to give an account of something. That's one of the definitions. It was used from the 1400s. We know our, we have our Bible was translated in the 1600s, right? 1611. And so it was in that time period from 1400s to 1660, I think it was, that one of the understandings that could be implied by this word show is to tell, to give an account of, to speak, to give an account of, to speak.

And so based on the usage of this word here in our text this morning, and even the understanding of what the Greek means, it's talking about to proclaim or to tell us something. This is, or to declare something. This is saying to us that as often as we eat this bread and drink this cup, we, ye do, show, ye do, proclaim, ye do declare and tell the Lord's death till He come. That's what we're doing this morning. We are telling, we're proclaiming the Lord's death till He come. He may come in our lifetime. We hope He does. We don't know when He'll come. But we should have that spirit of anticipation that we are going to continue to repent. To do two things. What is this Lord's Supper is we're remembering. Didn't He say do this in remembrance of me? And in remembering me, you are showing, you're telling, you're confessing that the Lord's death until He come and we want to continue to not just go through the motions. If we're actually observing the Lord's Supper, then we're not going through the motions. We are, examining ourselves, aren't we? We are examining ourselves and being sure that there is not anything that would keep us from partaking worthily. First of all, am I in Christ? New creature. And then, certainly we need to be sure that it's all well between my soul and the Savior. Not between me and Him that would prevent His blessed face from being seen. That fellowship that we have. With the Lord.

So, this, this word show demonstrates, it's telling us that we are proclaiming. We're proclaiming He died that we might live. We're proclaiming when we partake of this, the Lord, our Lord has died for us that we might live. And, as Paul said to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 5.15, he said, and that He, died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him that which died for them and rose again. It is God who is rich in mercy for His great love wherewith He loved us. That even when we were dead in sins, we were dead in our sins and trespasses, that He quickened, He made us together, made us alive together, with Christ, and has raised us up together to sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Paul will tell the Ephesians this vital truth. So, if we are properly proclaiming the Lord's death, we're partaking worthily of this ordinance. We might say, well, I don't think after hearing the preaching, as long as we've heard it, most of you shouldn't say, well, what are you talking about? We should know, right? We're not worthy. We are not worthy in and of ourselves, but we are to be worthy in the sense that we are genuine believers and trusting in God's Word and what He says and living a life in accordance to that Word. Not a hypocrite, right? The Bible doesn't speak well of hypocrites. The Bible doesn't speak well of those who say one thing and do the other. So it's a reminder, but it's a proclamation this morning.

And now, what are we doing? It's so that we are proclaiming that we are walking worthy of the Lord, right? Colossians 1.10. Colossians 1.10. Let's look over there together. Colossians 1.10. We are walking worthy of the Lord. We are not partaking of this ordinance in vain and so that His death would be in vain and that His body was broken and His blood was shed in vain. No, in Colossians 1.10, now, Paul's prayer is that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. This was Paul's prayer that we might walk worthy. The Colossians might walk worthy. Well, how do we walk worthy? Well, we can't walk worthy if our steps aren't ordered according to God's Word. We can't walk worthy if we lean to our own understanding.

We can only walk worthy as we walk according to God's clearly revealed Word. It's in His Word that we find the truth and we put our faith in the truth of what Christ did for us on that cross. We've never met Christ and yet having not seen Him, we love Him. But, as Christians now, we cannot walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing if we're not examining ourselves and making sure that all is well between our hearts and Him. We just can't. We can't move forward if there's known sin in our lives. We can't ignore it. We can't put a rug over it. We can, but we cannot prosper in that way. We must walk worthy. We must walk worthy. We must walk worthy. We must walk worthy. We must walk worthy. We must walk worthy. We must walk worthy. We must walk worthy. We must be sure that all is well.

Look with me in 1 Peter 2. 1 Peter 2, verse 9. 1 Peter 2, verse 9 says, I'm sure you all know it well. 1 Peter 2, verse 9, but ye, Peter says, are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. A chosen generation. Oh, we were the children of the generation of this world. We were children of the age. We were children of the darkness. But now we are a chosen generation. We have a new way of life, don't we? If we're in Christ, we have a new way of life. The old is, Paul said, forgetting those things which are behind. Forgetting that. He said, what things were gained to me, my pedigree, who I was. I count all of that but loss. I count all of that but loss. He says, here Peter says, we're a royal priesthood. Well, priests have access to God through Jesus Christ. You know, we can't have access to you know, how can we expect our prayers to be true?

How can we expect our prayers to be true? How can we expect our prayers to be true? How can we expect our prayers to be true? How can we expect our prayers to be heard if there's something between us and the Lord? The only way we have access is through Jesus Christ to God. We have, as it says here, as Peter says, we are a holy nation. A holy nation. Well, a nation has a king or a governor, doesn't it? And the Lord, Jesus Christ, is our king. He is our Lord. He is our governor. If you will. And we see that it specifically says that we are a peculiar people. And my understanding of that phrase is we are uniquely His. We belong. We're His own peculiar possession. We belong to Him. The Bible describes us as servants, slaves now. We are His, not because of we were forced to be His, but because He called us and we came at the, you know, who hath believed our report, right? Isaiah says we believed the report. We heard and heeded the call of the gospel and we became His own. Now we belong to Jesus Christ.

And so being a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, what are we to do? Well, we are to show. We are to make apparent. We are to make to exhibit the praises of Him. You know, and I think because this word show, it seems like there's an interchangeable and almost a dual understanding there in the mind that it could mean both show and tell. Even when you think about this, this is not isolated to the word show. Think about the word conversation that we have in the King James. Think about other words. There was another one that I was thinking of. What was it? The word as well communicate. Conversation. You know, there was this idea. It extended beyond just words. And what we're doing today, we are coming together. We're coming into this Lord's house and we are showing. We are showing to one another. We're showing before the Lord that we are that we identify with and we are grateful for as we remember what He has done for us and that we are partaking worthily. We're testifying by what we're doing today. We're proclaiming the Lord's death in the presence of one another. You know, we have a wedding and they have all the witnesses there together, you know?

And yet, not that any one of you is on display, I'm not saying that, but by coming together. And we should be in our hearts thinking about our own relationship before the Lord, not looking around to see who all is taking in that. But we are coming together to proclaim, to testify, to show the Lord's death even till He come. If we're growing in the Lord and we're walking in Him, our life and our lips, not only here today, but our life and our lips should show forth the Lord Jesus Christ. We should show forth the praises, as we just read a moment ago, of Him that has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. I think of the words of that hymn by Robert Murray McShane. He said, Chosen not for good in me, hastened or wakened up from wrath to flee, hidden in the Savior's side, by the Spirit sanctified, teach me, Lord, on earth to show by my love how much I owe. I think those words, that truth needs to be in our hearts this morning as we come to partake. We were chosen not for good in us, but we were hastened or wakened up from wrath to flee, and we should have that spirit, Lord, teach me to show by my love how much I owe.

Scripture says a lot. I just want to briefly mention a few things to you before we partake this morning. Scripture says a lot. It even talks about servants in the culture of the New Testament times. There were slaves, of course. Servants. The servants were told to count their own masters worthy of all honor that the Word of God not be and His doctrine not be blasphemed. They were to show honor to their masters, and by so doing, they were showing honor. They were proclaiming the Lord in their actions. They were proclaiming I serve a heavenly master. He is my Lord. I am one of His peculiar people. You know, Hebrews talks about was it chapter 11 that we are that we are to declare plainly that we are strangers and pilgrims in the earth. That includes our words. But it includes, it certainly includes the way that we live among men.

Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. The servants were to were to show all good fidelity that they may adorn the doctrine of God in all things. Paul told Titus to tell that. Think about Onesimus, a runaway slave. And what happened when the Lord got a hold of him? He went back to his master, didn't he? He went back to Philemon. And in so doing, he showed I serve the Lord Jesus Christ now. And because I serve him, I'm going to come back to you. It's up to Philemon whether he's going to treat him now as a brother or so, and not just as a slave. But it changed. His life showed the opposite. He ran away from his master before, but he came back to his master afterwards. He showed. He showed that by his life I'm a different, I am a changed man. I belong to my Lord.

Husbands are to show. We're to show that we love our wives. We love the Lord by loving our wives, right? Be not bitter against them. We're to show that. Wives are to show. That they love the Lord in any number of ways, but the wives are to even be taught, the younger women are to be taught by the older women, right? The older men are to teach the younger men. The wives are to be sober, the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children. It's told us there in Titus chapter 2. Look there with me. Let's turn over there for just a moment. I want to read just a little bit of that. Titus chapter 2. We see there in Titus chapter 2 and pick up with verse 5. In verse 5 it says that the women, the younger women are to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

Do you notice that? We start seeing this pattern with the servants, with the testimony of the younger people, the husbands, wives. All of this is as unto the Lord, and we see something to the effect of the word of God, the doctrine of God, be not blasphemed. This is a God did not give us this ordinance this morning just to take up space and time and be a formality and all that. What are we doing? It's a spiritual recalling to mind all that God has done for us and is all well between us and Him so that I can be. Am I the husband? Am I the wife? Am I the child? Children, obey your parents. This is right in the Lord. Am I showing? I don't want to show something here today that is inconsistent with what I'm showing in my life. I don't want to show something maybe with words I speak, or by taking the cup, and yet I'm not talking about sinless perfection, of course, but I'm saying is my life showing that I am living in remembrance of what He's done for me?

Is my life showing that? Can my wife testify to that? Can my husband testify to that? Can my children? Can our parents say, you know, and if we sin, we make the matter right. Are we showing? Are we showing humility? Are we showing meekness? Are we showing love? Are we showing a pattern of good works in our lives that arise from a living genuine faith in what our Lord has done for us? Everyone, when we look at all these passages about, you know, husbands, wives, children, everybody's supposed to be sober, right? Sober. Well, being a Christian is a sobering thing. It's a sobering privilege and responsibility to live a Christian life. The world is watching us. I know my children are watching me. We have a great privilege and responsibility to live for the Lord, and we can't do it in our own strength. We can only do it as we are motivated by the love of what the Lord has done for us. Of what he's done for us.

As a pastor. Lovest thou me? The Lord told Peter. And he said, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He said, feed my sheep. Feed my sheep. Am I feeding the sheep? Those are sobering questions for me. We all need to come to God's word and say, and ask the sobering questions. And let the Lord ask these questions of us. Are you showing? Are you showing? Are you showing that you love me? When we partake of this this morning, we're showing that we know the Lord loves us, and that we love him enough to not have sin building up in our lives that is unconfessed. That we do not have sin that is unaddressed, and we say, it's just, it's just a light thing. No, it's a serious thing. Let's deal with sin. If there's sin in our lives, if there's something between us and the Lord, let's address it. Don't let it become something that it shouldn't be in our lives. Don't let it grow. Don't let it fester. Don't let it become a cancer in our lives. It will affect not only us, it will affect the brethren. We said this morning in the Kings of Israel, the sad thing was that our sin doesn't only affect us, it affects others. It certainly affects the Lord. It grieves him, but it affects others. But you know what? Just like that, Brother Christopher was talking about how that front passed through, and the air was so clear outside this morning. When all is well with us and the Lord, and between us and the brethren, what a clarity.

What a freedom we have. Why would we want to? Why would we want anything to be between us and the Lord? May we partake today worthily and may we come walk worthily as we go forward this week. Walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing. May we say, Lord, help us to show by not only our words but by our lives that we are grateful. We have not forgotten all that you've done for us. You've been so good to us. May we keep that in our hearts as we partake this morning. Let's pray. Father, thank you for how you have shown. You didn't only tell us, you loved us, but God so loved the world that he gave. You showed, you told us, but you showed us in sending your Son to the cross. And Lord, you have given us this needed ordinance for us to from time to time along the way, of this pilgrim journey, to draw aside and examine ourselves and to ask the sobering, serious question of ourselves is all well between me and the Lord? Is there anything that I'm just passing over in my life or making excuses for and not addressing? Lord, we pray that as we do that today, there is trust that we have done that and if not, that we have done that. That we would do it even now and get any matter that's not right under the blood so that we can partake worthily. Thank you for this time we've had in your word and we just pray now that you bless us and be with us in these moments as we gather for the partaking of these elements. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.