What kind of Cup Do You Bring



What kind of Cup Do You Bring?

1 Corinthians 11:23-29

Introduction:

Paul wrote to the church at Corinth describing the taking of the Lord’s Supper, or Communion which we partake of each Lord’s Day, or the first day of the week.

Why each first day of the week? We strive as the Church of Christ to follow the pattern of the early Christians in our worship and remembrance of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

On a long trip from Macedonia to Jerusalem, Paul stopped at Troas, staying seven days until the first day of the week came- the day when “the disciples came together to break bread” (Acts 20:7). The breaking of bread was understood to be “the communion of the body of Christ” (1 Cor 10:16-17).

Second century Christians, described in the Didache an uninspired manual of instruction dated 115 AD, “On the Lord’s Day assemble and break bread and give thanks, having first confessed your sins that your sacrifice may be pure.”

Ignatius admonished the Christians in Ephesus in AD 112 that “all come together in common in one faith…breaking one and the same bread, which is the medicine of immortality, our antidote that we should not die, but live forever in Christ Jesus.” That’s not the description of an ordinary meal. He also wrote to the Magnesians that “those who had been brought up under the law of Moses who had come to the newness of hope, no longer observed the Sabbath, but kept the Lord’s Day.”

Justin in his Apology AD 150 explained that Christians regularly met “on the day which is called the day of the sun,” that they listened as some read from the writings of the prophets and from the apostles of Christ, and that one then preached, exhorting them to follow what they had heard. He explained that bread and watered-down wine were brought forth, prayers were offered, and distribution was made to all who assembled. He then says that “We hold our common assembly on the day of the sun, because it is the first day…and on the same day Jesus Christ our Savior rose from the dead.” He adds that after His resurrection, “on the day of the sun He appeared to His apostles and disciples and taught them these things.”

The bread is a symbol of Christ’s body and the sacrifice He would make the next day on the cross. It is a “symbol”… bread is bread, and we are not to make it into an idol as some do. The fruit of the vine we partake as a symbol of Christ’s blood by which we are saved. It too is a symbol of the blood Jesus shed as a sinless sacrifice for our sins. We are called to remembrance of these things each Lord’s Day. That we commune with one another as one body, and with Jesus as we remember.

I would like to ask as you as you come each week to worship and as you come to the Lord’s table this question: What kind of cup do you bring? The answer you are able to give to that question greatly determines what you will receive of God’s grace as you gather for worship and the Lord’s Supper.

What kind of cup do you bring? The cup I am talking about is the receptacle of your life which is able to receive the grace and gifts God desires to give you.

What kind of cup do you bring? Some people bring a full cup. Some bring a partially filled cup. And others bring an empty cup. Let us look at what this imagery means.

I. Some people bring a cup that is already filled

It does not take much imagination to see that nothing can be added to a cup that is already full. And yet many people come to the Lord’s table just that way.

Some people come with cups so full of themselves that God cannot possibly pour anything more into them. If persons perceive themselves as self-sufficient, they feel they really do not need anything from the Lord. They have all they need. Their cups are already full.

And thus it is that some people come to worship and the Lord’s Supper and receive nothing. They leave the assembly disappointed that they did not "get anything out of" the worship service. They are engaged in an exercise of futility. You cannot add anything to something already full.

What kind of cup do you bring? Is it already full?

What kind of cup do you bring?

II. Some people bring a partially filled cup

The imagery of the partially filled cup is a bit more subtle. Let me illustrate it this way. If you come to my home for a drink of iced tea and you bring your own cup already partially filled with a mixture of salt and alum dissolved in water, what will be the result? The iced tea will be contaminated by what is already in your cup and will not quench our thirst. Indeed the resulting mixture will bear little resemblance to the iced tea I offered you in the first place. None of us would intentionally do such a thing.

And yet many of us come to worship in this way. We come with our resentments, our animosities, our bitterness, and our unforgiving spirits. And we are content to let these concoctions of our spirits contaminate the gifts God pours into our cup. This is what Jesus was getting at when he advised his disciples: "If you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift." (Matthew 5:23-24) Jesus knew that our acts of worship were useless if we allow our partially filled cups to contaminate God’s gifts.

Notice that I have changed from talking about "some people" to talking about us. I believe that many more of us are guilty of coming to worship and the Lord’s Table with cups partially filled. It is a blind spot of people who consider themselves religious. Many things in our cups can contaminate the gifts God desires to give us - pretense, spiritual pride, self-righteousness.

What kind of cup do you bring? Is your cup partially filled?

What kind of cup do you bring?

III. Some people come with empty cups.

These persons realize their radical need for God’s grace. They realize you cannot stockpile or store up God’s grace. They realize that their sufficiency rests in God, not in themselves. They realize how many things in their lives contaminate the grace and gifts God desires to give to them. They realize that in order to live, and love, and serve as God intends them to do, their cup needs to be constantly refilled by a never depleted source.

And so they come - we come - bringing, expecting, and desperately needing our cups to be filled. And we will not be disappointed. "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for God and His way of life, for they shall be satisfied." (Matthew 5:6)

Those who know themselves to be empty will be filled.

What kind of cup do you bring? Is your cup empty, waiting to be filled to overflowing?

Let us now pray and prepare our hearts for the communion this Lord’s Day.

Lord, empty us of ourselves, empty us of any bitterness and unforgiveness that remain in us. Let us come before you in communion as one body, empty and in need of filling from the never ending springs of your grace. Renew us as we partake of the symbols of your sacrifice. Amen

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