1 Corinthians 11: This is NOT a Buffet

Have you ever had a friend that was a lot of fun in small doses? You could only stand them for a little while before they became hard to deal with? This is what I think about when I think of Corinth. They were in a large international metropolis filled with people from various backgrounds. It was likely a fun place to be for a visit. However, living there was probably a different story. Paul is in Ephesus when he receives word that the church in Corinth is at it again. Divisions and quarreling are breaking out everywhere over wild things... trust me... wild things. They are a church in division. Paul has a frank discussion with them on the need for harmony among the various people groups, the need to rally around the essentials, how to conduct proper worship services without hurting each other, and so much more. The real-life soap-opera needs someone to make sense of it all.

Let’s read it together.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Bible Breakdown
• 0:23 Introducing 1 Corinthians 11
• 2:10 Cultural Context of Head Coverings
• 8:23 The Lord's Supper Problem
• 11:07 Treating Holy Things as Holy
• 16:02 Prayer and Closing Thoughts

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Hey everyone and welcome to the Bible Breakdown podcast. In this podcast, we will be breaking down the Bible one chapter a day. Whether you are a new believer or have been following Christ for a while, we believe that you will learn something new and fresh every single day. So thank you for joining us and let's get into breaking down the Bible together.

Speaker 2: 0:23

Well, hello everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, pastor Brandon, today, 1 Corinthians 11. If I were to give this one a title, it would be this is Not a Buffet. This ain't no buffet, and we're going to talk about that in just a moment. But if you like what we're doing here, make sure you like, share and subscribe to the YouTube channel.

Speaker 2: 0:43

Leave us a five-star review on the podcast and also I want to know in today's Bible Breakdown discussion, what is your favorite kind of buffet? I'm just sincerely curious. You've got Chinese buffets, you've got just like your regular salad bar type buffets, you've got like Golden Corral, all this kind of stuff. What is your favorite buffet? Well, I'm going to tell you, one of the things that I got to do when I was a kid is I used to love going to like these potluck dinners. I grew up in church and it was like everybody would bring food and you'd go and have a good time and you go and get to enjoy it. But also, what we got to do is a lot of times we'd have a big meal like that after a service where we would receive communion together. Well, back in the day you had these little communion cups, they look like little shot glasses really and they would put these Welch's grape juice in there. And my stepmother was an amazing cook and she would cook this wonderful like unleavened bread and she always made more than what we needed and so everybody else would go to the potluck and eat. I would stay after and I would drink all the shot glasses of grape juice and I would eat all the unleavened bread so that by the time I actually got back to the you know the covered dish potluck thing, I wasn't that hungry anymore. Well, if I was in the church at Corinth, Paul would have gotten on to me because he's saying that is not what this is for, but at the same time they were doing it differently than I was.

Speaker 2: 2:08

So to kind of catch you up while you open up your Bibles to 1 Corinthians, chapter 11, the church at Corinth is in a city that's a port town and it is a diverse place full of all these different kinds of people that they're in the Las Vegas of first century Rome and it was like it was a party man. Things are constantly happening. Probably a lot of fun to be there, but at the same time, underneath the surface of all that fun man. There's division happening, as we've said that we could have easily titled this whole thing church family therapy session, because there's all kinds of division and Pastor Paul is taking everybody in his office and he's saying we need to do some therapy because you guys need to start learning how to get along. So he spends the first two or three chapters establishing that we rally around Jesus. He's like I'm your spiritual father, so I'm going to talk to you like a daddy, and then he just lays into them what are you doing right? And he just keeps on going.

Speaker 2: 3:02

And the past three chapters he's been talking about this idea that we got to get out of our heads. Like I know you live in the Las Vegas of the first century, I know that it's a party, I know that it's a consumeristic type of environment, but we don't live for ourselves in Christianity. We live in a community. We live for one another. Like that's one of the strengths of the body of Christ is the community we have with each other. And he's been talking about that. And now he is going to transition this to what it looks like in the local church service, because they were meeting and they were having church, but it was weird. It was like all kinds of division and stuff going on, and so Paul's trying to bring some kind of balance to all this crazy. And one of the things comes with something you may not think about, something that teenage and 12 and 13 year old Brandon was doing, and we don't need to do it.

Speaker 2: 3:54

So get your Bibles open to 1 Corinthians 11. We're going to dive into this and just see what God's word has to say to us. Are you ready? Verse one says this you should imitate me just as I imitate Christ. Now, that's Paul saying like I'm trying to be an example for you, and so remember what I did when I was there, and this is what he's going to say. Verse two I am so glad that you always keep me in your thoughts and that you are following the teachings I passed on to you, but there is one thing I want you to know the head of every man is Christ, the head of every woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. A man dishonors his head if he covers his head while he's praying or prophesying, but a woman dishonors her head if she prays or prophesies without covering her head, for this is the shade as shaving her head. Now pause. What in the world?

Speaker 2: 4:45

Well first of all he's saying don't forget that in the family ordered structure you have authority. So just as God the father and God the son are same in essence, different in person, he's saying, just like that. You've got a husband and wife and home, they're same in family. You've got a husband and wife in a home they're same in family, different in position, so you have a different authority there. So a husband is no better, no worse than his wife, but when it comes to the ordered structure of the home, he has the honor and the weight of being the leader. The wife also has her honor and her position. Both are there and he's saying so when you pray and you prophesy, a husband doesn't keep his head covered, a woman does, because of the cultural differences.

Speaker 2: 5:32

Also in that area there were these different temples where the way they would worship that god or goddess, especially the asterisk poles, was prostitutionitution, and the temple prostitutes would shave their heads. That was a way of knowing this is a temple prostitute as part of it. And so what he is saying is you should wear your head covered because in our worldview we don't do the prostitution thing. So cover your head because that's what we do. And some of them probably had had their head shaved because they were in that. Now they're not. And so he's saying don't cut off your hair, wear not. And so he's saying don't cut off your hair, wear that Not. Because he's saying that cutting your hair is a sinful thing. He's saying it's shameful because of what that represents. Notice he says this in verse 6. If she refuses to wear her head covering, she should cut off her hair. But since it is shameful for a woman to have her hair cut, her head shaved, she should wear a covering. So in other words, he's saying that that is what that would symbolize and it's a shameful thing to do it. He's not saying because a woman who cuts her hair is bad. He's saying because of what it represented in the culture. But also notice he's saying that a woman has a right to prophesy. She should just do it decently and in order Verse 7,.

Speaker 2: 6:48

A man should not wear anything on his head when worshiping. For a man is made in God's image and reflects God's glory. A woman reflects a man's glory and for the first, man didn't come from woman, but the first woman came from man. And the man was not made for woman, but the woman was made for man. For this reason, and because the angels are watching, a woman should wear a covering on her head and show that she is under authority, in other words, the family ordered structure Verse 11,. But among the Lord's people, women are not independent of men and men are not independent of women. Once again, unity within the family, for although the first woman came from man, every other man was born from a woman and everything comes from God. Judge for yourselves if it is right for a woman to pray to God in public without her head covering.

Speaker 2: 7:38

Isn't it obvious that it's disgraceful for a man to have long hair? And isn't it long hair a woman's pride and joy, for it has been given to her as a covering. But if anyone wants to argue about this, I simply say that we have no other custom than this, neither do God's other churches. Now, once again, this has to do with the customs of the time. In the customs of the time, that is how they differentiated from one another. So once again, paul is not saying that it is a sinful thing for a man to have long hair ever. He's saying in the custom of the time it was considered shameful because many times it had to do with idle work, worship. So the bottom line of how that works for us is we don't follow the customs of the world in order to worship God Verse 17,.

Speaker 2: 8:23

But the following instructions I can't praise you. In other words, he's saying you're not doing this right, for it sounds to me as if more harm than good is being done when you meet together. First, I hear that there are divisions among you when you meet as a church, and to some extent I actually believe it. But of course there must be divisions among you so that you have God's approval. But of course there must be divisions among you so that you who have God's approval will be recognized when you meet together. You are not really interested in the Lord's Supper. That's communion, for some of you hurry to eat your own meal without sharing with others. As a result, some go hungry while others get drunk. What Don't you have your own homes for eating and drinking? Or do you really want to disgrace God's church and shame the poor? What am I supposed to say? Do you really want me to praise you? Well, I certainly do not praise you for this, for I pass on to you what I received from the Lord himself.

Speaker 2: 9:27

Then, on the night, the Lord knew he was going to be betrayed. The Lord Jesus took some bread and he gave thanks for it and he broke it into pieces and he said this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. 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 by the blood. Do this in remembrance of me as often as you drink it, for every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord's death until he comes.

Speaker 2: 9:58

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. This is why you should examine yourselves before eating the bread and drinking the cup. 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. That is why many of you are weak and sick and some of you have died. But if we would examine ourselves, we would not be judged by God in this way. Yet when we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned along with the world. So, my dear brothers and sisters, when you gather for the Lord's Supper, wait for each other. If you are really hungry, eat at home, so you won't bring judgment upon yourselves when you meet together. I'll give you instructions about other matters after I arrive.

Speaker 2: 10:54

So what's happening? What's happening is they are preparing the wine and they're preparing the unleavened bread for the last supper, and then they're just eating it. They're just having a party and they're not using that as an act of worship. And so Paul is saying why are you having a picnic with communion? It's not about the food, it's about what it represents. You're treating it as another one of your parties. You have your other parties to do that with. This is an act of worship. So don't treat this act of worship as something that is so very silly and so, honestly, when I was doing that as a kid, it was out of innocence but it was wrong, like I should not have actually been going and just dining out and all that stuff, because it is just food and it's okay, but it's what it represents that makes it holy.

Speaker 2: 11:45

And so what Paul is actually saying is is you should take this opportunity for worship as holy, and so that's why one of the things that we do before we get ready to receive communion is we just say everybody, just take a moment and remember the goodness of God. Take a moment. Is there anything between you and the Lord that might hinder you worshiping this, to taking it very seriously? Because when we take in, figuratively, the body and blood of Jesus, we are celebrating what God did and we are bringing in his goodness, his healing, all the good things. We're just remembering the goodness of God. But we're not going to do that if we're treating it like a buffet, if we're like, well, I'm going to do all this, and then what they were doing is because they weren't taking it serious when it was all over with. There wasn't enough for everybody, and so Paul's saying stop it, treat it wholly like it's supposed to, because if you don't, there's judgment attached to it, because this is a holy thing.

Speaker 2: 12:43

And so what can we learn from this today? First of all, the thing that we can learn from this is to realize that we don't use the customs of the world to honor God. That's what Paul was saying in the first half. He was saying the reason why she doesn't have a shaved head is because in the customs of the world, that represented a temple prostitute. And I know that you may want to shave your head to say that you're committed to God, like they're committed to their God, but don't do that. And for guys having long hair and doing that, that was part of that idol worship over there and that whole thing.

Speaker 2: 13:14

We're not doing that. We're not using the culture of the world or the culture of other gods to worship God. God has a specific way that he wants to be worshipped, because there's no pain attached to that for us. All these other things require all this other stuff. God wants freedom for us, so don't do that. And then, secondly, take holy things as holy. Take holy things seriously. And so what I would encourage you to do is to first of all think about how you worship God. Do you worship God, do you live for God because you got it out of his word, or do you do it because somebody else told you to? And if it's still fine and it's still good, then do it, but if not, maybe take a next step. And then the other thing is is when you go to church, do you take what you do seriously?

Speaker 1: 14:00

Now.

Speaker 2: 14:01

I don't mean that we should act serious. As a matter of fact, I think that Sunday should be the happiest day of the week for all of us. I think that we're celebrating the goodness of God. But when you go to church, do you treat it as though you're just kind of getting another thing on your to-do list done for the week, or do you treat it as this is serious, this is holy? When I'm worshiping, I'm joining with my brothers and sisters in Christ and we're figuratively entering into the throne room of God. When I'm opening up God's Word and I'm studying God's Word with my pastor, we're literally learning about the goodness of God. When there's an opportunity for prayer, I have an opportunity. Do we're literally learning about the goodness of God? When there's an opportunity for prayer, I have an opportunity? Like, do you take it seriously? Because whatever effort you put in is what you can expect to get out.

Speaker 2: 14:42

That's what Paul is saying. He's saying, man, you're treating communion as a party. Well, no wonder you're not coming together and that you're not receiving healing. Because they really felt like in the early church and we should get back to this that you're never closer to the heart of God than in the moment of communion. They would actually believe that when you receive communion, that literally the very presence of God would be there with you. It was the closest way to get to God was through remembering in the act of communion.

Speaker 2: 15:12

What would it look like if, when we came together as the church, we remembered that and we said we're never closer to the heart of God than when we, as the body of Christ, come together, we worship, we read his word together and we pray together. We might find healings, deliverance, ministry, encouragement All the things that we pray for might be waiting for us in his unified presence together. Let's pray, father. Thank you so much for your word. Thank you, god, that you want joy, you want goodness, you want your kindness for us. I pray, god, that as we reach out for you, we'll find that you're never far from us.

Speaker 2: 15:51

I pray you will help us, lord, to never look to culture to tell us how to worship you. But, lord, we'll seek after you with all of our heart. I pray God that as we come together, we will see it as a wonderful time of celebration and also as a time to not take it for granted but to celebrate what you're doing. Thank you, god, for loving us the way you do. In Jesus' name, we pray Amen. In Jesus' name, we pray Amen. Amen. Well, family therapy session over for today. Don't forget God's word says in 1 Corinthians 10, 31. So, whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, even if it's communion, do all for the glory of God, all right no-transcript.