The Marks Of A Healthy Church

close your eyes anymore when it's time to pray

there's no tenderness like before in your songs of praise

brother you've lost that love for jesus oh that love for jesus you've lost that love for jesus now it's gone gone you never read the word anymore like he used to do and there's no happiness poor joy of the lord in you for jesus lost that love for jesus now it's gone brother brother i get down on my knees for you for jesus now it's gone jesus now it's gone

bibles to acts chapter 2 as we go through acts yes we are going there is a book there is a more to acts than chapter 2. there is a chapter 3 and we will get there but we've been spending the last few weeks in verse 42 of chapter 2 looking at each of the marks what i call the marks of the characteristics of a healthy church in verse 42 then verses 3 through the end of chapter 2 actually expound even more on verse 42 but look again just to refresh verse 42 with me again talking about not only the disciples the 120 in the upper room but now the 3 000 that have believed as a result of the outpouring of god's spirit they've been baptized and added to the number now and they continued they devoted themselves verse 42 to the apostles

teaching and to the fellowship and to the breaking of bread and to prayer it is so easy especially with us being in the laodicean dominated age of the church it's so easy for us to often overlook the obvious it's right there in front of us satan deceives with half truth and so it's so easy for us to often just overlook the obvious in kentucky two men tried to pull the front of a cash machine off by running a chain from the front of the machine to the bumper of their truck they were so scared that they left the scene and drove home with the chain still attached to the front of the cash machine and the other end attached to the bumper of the truck and their license tag was attached to the bumper it's so easy to overlook the obvious in indiana a man

walked up to a cashier at a grocery store demanded all the money in the register when the cashier handed him the money he fled leaving his wallet on the counter in texas a man walked up to a cashier at a grocery store demanded all the money in the register when the cashier handed him the money he was a man convicted of robbery worked out a deal to pay 9 600 in damages rather than serve a prison sentence for payment he provided the court a check a forged check he got 10 years see it's so easy for us to overlook the obvious things are happening all around us and it's so easy for us to just overlook the things the obvious that's right in front of us as we look at this section in the book

of acts i don't know you've probably read acts 2 a lot and you probably read over verse 42 a lot and you could probably quote back to me and in your version the fact that the apostles devoted themselves to the apostles teaching or apostles doctrine to fellowship to the breaking of bread and the prayer you could probably quote that but it's so easy for us to see that and yet overlook the obvious intent of each one of these and it not be happening in our life or in the life of our church if it's not and i pointed this out and for those that are new with us not only is this marks of the characteristics of a healthy church fellowship as a whole the church body as a whole but it also as it characterizes the health

of us as individuals within the church we are the body of christ we're parts of the body individually god has placed us in it severally as he will so these characteristics need to be evident in us individually as well as corporately in the church and until they are individually they won't be corporately and it's so easy for us to overlook the obvious and so we've already gone through the first two we've talked about the apostles doctrine they devoted themselves to that we've talked about that phrase that means they gave themselves to it with so much their life and breath that they could not help themselves but be in the apostles doctrine they they had to be in the word it was it was as necessary as the food that they ate but

it was more than just reading the word it was understanding not only who jesus was and what he had taught but it all hinged or was founded upon the command the new commandment that he gave us in john 13 that we love one another as he has loved us for by that particular act by that fact by the keeping of that command would all men know that we are indeed his disciples that's the only mark is that we have love for one another as he loved us and so that's why we're so so that was foundational we spent a lot of time developing that that's the key to the apostles doctrine it doesn't make any difference to me if you can quote the beatitudes to me i want to see

him in your life it doesn't make any difference to me if you can can quote the sermon on the mount matthew 6 7 and 8. i want to see it in your life and it will reflect itself in your life if you have love for the fellowship for one another if that love is active that's a devotion to the apostles doctrine then we look the second week at uh they devoted themselves to in niv it says the fellowship the direct article is there the definite article it's not in the greek to the specifically it's in the first part in the greek but and it's implied though in the rest of the sentence there's specifics that they're devoted to the doctrine of the apostles the fellowship of

believers and we talked about that the word in the greek is koinonia as you know again it's obvious but it means more than just getting together at church services it was a we went through the definition of the word koinonia in the greek it means more than just fellowship and getting together it came down to several different definitions from the concordances and from the lexicons and the one that i hinged on the most in the greek is the word koinonia was intimacy it's an intimacy it's a vulnerable intimacy with each other that seeks to be real and hold each other up the purpose of the fellowship is that we can be real with each other for the purpose of encouraging and holding each other up to walk on in the lord to keep walking

until he calls us home obvious but often overlooked how often has it been active in your own personal life how often do you take time to get to know people how often are you vulnerable and and open and become intimate in a fellowshipping way with the fellowship with people in the fellowship that we're exhorted to that we know that it's obvious but we often overlook it because we're so busy in our own lives so we come today to the third part of verse 42 they devoted themselves they gave themselves over they saw as more important than anything else in life not only the apostles doctrine and the fellowship but the breaking of bread it says that's the same in every version in every translation they gave themselves to the breaking of bread now what does

that mean i'll tell you just about all the commentaries i've read breeze over that i mean there are some that really hit verse 42 but the emphasis that they hit is apostle's doctrine and prayer either in they kind of gloss over fellowship and they really glide over the breaking of bread together most commentators say that it simply refers to the celebration of the lord's table the celebration of the lord's supper and then they go on to talk about prayer so they gave their lives for they knew it was most important that beyond anything else they had to give themselves to the apostles doctrine they were there no second thought was lost but food Leist you when there was some peace in heaven when there were phases of hope and vengeance all between the

br DIY of the church when those outcasts were alive and they brought home the preparation of bread up to me am Apostle's doctrine. And so they labored in that. And their intimacy of the fellowship of the believers with the Lord was what was implied. And then they gave themselves, they labored in, they devoted themselves to the fellowship. And that takes the time to get to know the people

and come alongside and be vulnerable and transparent before and get to know so that you can share with and have each one hold you up. That takes time and a giving and a labored effect. And then they gave themselves to the celebration of the Lord's supper. I believe that there's more to that verse than that. I'm not negating it, but I think there's more to that verse than that. I

think there are things that are obvious in that verse that we simply overlook. We simply don't really take the time to see. So I want us to take a look at that verse this morning in the light of other scripture and also in the light of how Eastern culture perceives this and maybe give you a little bit broader understanding of what he's saying and characterize the first church. You see, unfortunately, the celebration of the Lord's supper, the celebration of the Lord's table in the Western culture, no matter how much we struggle against it, becomes routine.

It becomes a routine action. Now we have times where we set tables up and at the end of the service, you go to the table and you take your elements and you go, you can either pray there and take them as a family or go sit down and pray. And then there's times that in the middle of our worship service, we'll go ahead and have the elements passed and we'll all partake together as part of our worship. Our regular worship time in song. We do that for one reason only so that it doesn't become

just a simple routine. That's it. That's the only reason we do that because it's so easy. And even in that, it becomes routine. Even in that, it becomes the juice and the bread or the juice and the cracker or whatever. It just becomes routine. And the biggest fear you have in that particular time is not spilling the juice on your clothes. And it's real hard in

the Western culture to get the perspective of what they're talking about here, that the first church devoted themselves to as far as the breaking of bread is concerned. Now, this laxness and because of the routineness, I think there's a laxness in the modern church. There's a laxness in the church today concerning the understanding of the Lord's table. And it's a take it or leave it. Oh, next Sunday's communion. Oh, we could go or not. Think they'll pass it or think they'll get

up and go to table time. Sure anxious to go find out. It's just kind of who cares almost. It's so routine. Laxness, unfortunately, isn't just common with today's church. It was common back then as well. Hold your finger here in Acts 2 and turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 11. It's to your right. You go through Romans and then you come to Corinthian. 1 Corinthians chapter 11.

1 Corinthians chapter 11, if you have a study Bible, well, most of the Bibles even, even the Bibles in the pews, probably have it divided down at verse 17 in a heading that says the Lord's supper. And that's where we'll begin looking at verse 17. So read along with me silently as I read. In the following directives, Paul says, In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you. And to some extent, I believe it. No doubt there have to be differences among you to show

which of you have God's approval. When you come together, it's not the Lord's supper you eat. For as you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk. Don't you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you for this? Certainly

not. For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you. The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And in the same way, after supper, he took the cup, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this whenever you drink it, in remembrance

of me. But whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he come. Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning in the name of the Lord. And whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord will be condemned against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before

he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. That's why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment. When we are judged by the Lord, we're being disciplined so that we will not be

condemned with the world. So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for each other. If anyone is hungry, he should eat at home, so that when you meet together, it may not result in judgment. And when I come, I will give further directions. Now, what was Paul upset with the Corinthians about in this particular passage? Was it the way they celebrated the Lord's supper,

the Lord's table? Yeah, but the way they celebrated the Lord's table was simply the manifestation of the real problem in that fellowship. Look at verse 18 for just a second. Paul says in the first place, I see that when you come together, or I hear that when you come together as a church, that there are divisions among you. And when you come together, there are divisions among you. And when

you come together, there are divisions among you. Well, there's divisions. That means the intimacy is lost. That means when they're getting together and they're seeking to be devoted to the apostle's doctrine, which doesn't mean just memorizing scripture and learning verses. It means taking that and letting God use that to love others through you. That's devotion to the

apostle's doctrine for the foundation of that, again, is John 13, 33 and 35, that we love one another. And if there's divisions, the intimacy is broken. And if the intimacy is broken, the fellowship is broken. We're just kind of getting together. And if there's divisions, the intimacy is broken. And if the intimacy is broken in that fellowship, it reflects itself in the breaking

of bread. And so, yes, he was upset with the way they were celebrating the Lord's Supper, but it was because of how they were within themselves and within their fellowship. There were divisions among them. And Paul says in verse 17, because of those divisions, he says, your meetings do more harm than good. You're just getting together. There's no real ministry taking place. You're

just getting together. There's no real dynamic. There's no intimacy. There's no love. There's no growth. You're just generating time constraints by your meetings together. And Paul says in verses 20 through 22, then, that's reflected in your breaking of bread. That is reflected in the fact of your partaking of the Lord's table because you've become gluttonous and self-centered and

self-interested. You're not considering others. You're not considering their needs. Let me point out something here before we go on. The celebration of the Lord's table in the New Testament always is part of a meal. When the Lord's Supper, as we call it, as it's in my study Bible, so, you know, it's the Lord's Supper. Paul calls it that. We like to call it communion, I guess. And see,

we separate it and we set it off. And it's that part of the service where those plates are and where those brass or silver wine thingies are, cup thingies. And when it was instituted, it was not so. It was part of the Passover meal, part of the Passover Seder. When Jesus instituted communion, he was celebrating Passover with his disciples. Remember, that's what he said, go find the upper room where we can celebrate

Passover together. In the midst of the Passover meal is when he took the cup, which according to the Passover Seder, that particular cup, there are several different cups that are taken that are offered to the Lord and blessed and partaken of by the people. That particular cup is the cup of redemption. How wonderfully intricate the Lord was when he instituted the Passover meal, for it all speaks of the redemption through Jesus Christ, the saving from our sins by our Lord and Savior, by the Passover lamb. And so when Jesus took the cup of redemption,

he said, this cup is the cup of my blood, which is shed for you. And they knew they were looking at the cup of redemption. And right then they didn't equate it. They're going, huh, that's not part of the Seder. I don't remember that there. The same thing with the bread that Jesus took. It was an integral part of the Passover Seder. We've done a Passover Seder here. Hopefully we'll

do another one this spring. If you get a chance to see Jews for Jesus, do the Passover and the elements of the Passover. Give a quick synopsis of each element in the Passover and what it signifies. It all points to God's redeeming. God's not only moving Israel out of Egypt, but his redemption of mankind through the sacrifice of Mashiach, of Messiah. But it was part of a meal. And as you look in

the New Testament, you'll see that they gathered together for a meal. It was part of the meal that they were celebrating that they concluded with, or part of it was the celebration of the Lord's Supper. It's just a natural part of the organism function of the church. And we see that in Acts chapter 2. They were devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching, to the fellowship, and to the breaking of bread. Part of their meal,

part of their daily time and functioning in their mealtime. Now, one of the first things we need to realize or understand about this is the significant role that food plays in Scripture. All right, now we're talking my language. I can understand food. A lot of us don't understand yet, but I can understand food. Let me ask you a question. How did sin originally enter into the human race?

Through Adam and Eve. Yeah, I know. But how through Adam and Eve? Okay. There was no apple, not mentioned. Apple not mentioned in Genesis. They ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of God. And we don't know what it was. But they ate. They partook. They ate of fruit. Now, was the fruit bad? Bad fruit, sin, and world. They ate fruit. Told you. No, no, the fruit wasn't bad.

When God created the world, he created the world. He created the world. He created the world. He created everything in the garden and man and all. He looked at his creation, Genesis chapter and chapter one and chapter two, and said, it is good. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was not a bad fruit. It's just one that God didn't want man to eat. Now, follow me with this. When Adam

and Eve ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, it signified something. Now, follow me with this, because most of you are sitting there going, yeah, they were disobedient to the Lord. It signified that. They were in direct violation of God's word. God was not told them not to eat of the fruit of that tree. So, they were in disobedience to God's word. I'm

not minimizing that. I'm not saying that's not correct. That is absolutely correct. I'm just saying, I think there's more to that, and we're not seeing it, or maybe you haven't. I'm just now seeing it, but I'm excited about it, because as you go back to Genesis chapter three, and you read the account of Satan, the serpent, meeting with Eve, specifically, first, and talking with

her, it says in the text that, and Eve perceived, or Eve saw, that the fruit of the tree was good. For food. Now, let me ask you just a basic question. How did she know that? See, I walk out here in the country, here outside of Ark City, and I see little bushes with little berries on them. I don't know if they're good or they're bad. I can be walking with some of you guys that are campers,

and you've been through Boy Scouts, and you identified your trees and your bushes. You can tell me what tree. I don't even know trees. You know, that could be a maple. So, I can kind of tell maple trees, and I can, the elms are the ones that die. So, I know what an elm tree looks like. But I don't know berries. So, you could walk, and we could go out into the country, and they could say, there's a bush,

and there's berries on it, and you could say, those berries are good for food. And I'd go, uh-huh. Been there, done that, you know, before. I've not eaten no berries. And you pick one up, and you'd eat it, and it's good for food. And I watch you, and you don't fall over dead, so I go ahead and pick up and eat a berry. It says in Genesis 3, and the woman perceived that

the fruit was good for food. How do you suppose she perceived it? Let me throw a thought at you that maybe Satan is standing there as a serpent. We don't know. He wasn't crawling yet. What he looked like. He was persuasive, and he was attractive in his character, in his nature, and he probably, he was definitely defying the Word of God, telling her that there was really no account

that God was just deceiving her. He wanted something good for her, and this tree, this fruit's okay, and, well, it tastes pretty good. I don't want to have a bite. She thought it was good for food, and she took it, and she thought if he was that way and looked as good as he did, and he ate it, then maybe I could look down and be that, and I ate the fruit. And so, it wasn't just disobedience to God's Word. It was now a communing with

you. She communed with evil. She communed specifically with the evil one, but it was with food. They communed together. They participated together in disobedience to God's Word with food. Now, let's go clear to the other end of the spectrum, clear to the other end of the book. You're in the book of Revelation. What is the one thing as believers that we can't wait

to do when Jesus comes to get us? Celebrate the marriage feast, the marriage supper. We're going to eat again, and we're going to be together with the Lord and with all the believers around some hunk of table. I mean, it's going to be something. I don't know how we're going to do it. I've seen the artist's conception. They don't know how to, you know, the big, huge picture, and it's just a table that goes on for infinity, gold, silver, or

goldware, flat goldware, whatever you call it, and crystal, and neat candelabras, and all that stuff going on. I don't know how God's going to do it, but we're going to feast with him. We're going to, it's symbolized by eating with him because there's an intimacy in that, you see? There was an intimacy with Adam and Eve and the serpent in the garden, and sin entered the world, and as a result of the redemption through Christ, as we're brought back together, we're going to eat together. We're going to feast together and

discover in that feasting and that eating an intimacy again together, a oneness together as we feast at the marriage supper of the Lamb. Let me take you to another occurrence in Scripture. You know the story of the prodigal son. He takes his father's inheritance and goes and squanders it and ends up with the pigs. He doesn't need to be here. His dad's wealthy. He can go and just humble himself before his

dad and just be a slave in his father's household. On his way home, dad sees him coming, runs out the door, runs up to him, gives him a hug, orders that they bring out the robe and the rings and the sandals for his feet, and that they kill the fatted cat. Let's see. Why? Because there's a mark of celebrating, a mark of intimacy. They were going to partake together, and as they partook, they would be celebrating together the son that he had

seen as dead. They celebrated that together. They could have just put the robe on and applauded, and they probably did, and lift him up, and dad carry him in, and he probably did, but there's something about eating together. There was something about feasting together, killing the fatted calf, that example, the specialness that drew in the people that were partaking to an intimacy where they shared together intimately the emotional meaning, the purpose behind the fact.

The celebration of the son who was dead and seen as dead, but now was alive. You who are involved in sports activities with your kids, and you may be involved with the teams as a coach and all, and your team does real well, or you have your kids who are in music or dance, and they do recitals, and they go through a recital, and you've just finished, and wow, that was great. What do you do to celebrate? You go eat. Take the team to Dairy Queen.

Let's go eat pizza. Why? Is this the cultural thing to do? No, it's been handed down. It's part of celebrating together. We eat pizza together. We're one. Way to go, kid. You did great. We applauded at the concert, but we're going to go eat together, and that's special. I remember those special times as a kid with my folks. Do you? The special times you went and ate together,

and you felt like part of the team, and it just drew in that intimacy. It hammered it down more completely, more fully. I'm part of this thing. We're celebrating. Why do we celebrate birthdays? We celebrate birthdays with a birthday cake. It's a fun thing to do. We have lots of kids over. We guys cream and cake. It's a fun thing to put seed in. We don't think about it. We

don't think about it, and we need to. See, that's what we've lost where the breaking of bread is concerned, is the fact that it invites intimacy. It brings us together. We participate as one when we involve ourselves in this fellowship with the food. How often, if you want an interesting study, take some time and go through the Gospels and just see how often Jesus is involved with food and fellowship. In Matthew chapter 14, verse 19,

Mark chapter 8, verse 6, and Luke chapter 9, verse 16, they all record him feeding the multitudes, either the 5,000 or the 4,000. Numbers are really insignificant because usually it says in the case of the 5,000, 5,000 men, not including wives and children, so there's probably upwards of 12,000, 15,000 people feeding of the 5,000, same thing with feeding of the 4,000. But too often we focus on the miracle, and it's good to focus on it. I mean, I'm not saying it's wrong. I'm just following it. Too often we simply focus on, well, we

only had five loaves and two fish, or seven fish, and then three loaves, five loaves, whatever the other one is with the 4,000. There's still not enough food to feed that many people. And we focus on Jesus blessed it and lifted it towards heaven and brought it down. And you've seen the movie Jesus, and he brings it down, and it's got, you know, I don't know how he did it. I kind of like to think that they took it around, and as they pulled the

fish out and handed it away, you know, they pulled a part of the fish off and handed it out, and they got down to the last fish and pulled it off and handed it off. And if the disciples, you know, there's 12 disciples, and maybe you take, you know, five of you guys take fish. They each get one fish. Maybe, I don't know, let's go two fish. Let's make it a little more fun. Two fish. And the

guy finishes his turn. He has one fish apart. He looks down, and he's still got two fish. He has to accept fish, and he starts breaking it apart and handing it out, and he looks down, and he's still got two fish. And then he takes this fish and hands it out, and he looks down, and he's still got two fish. So now he starts handing the fish out, you know, and he just keeps handing them out. I don't know how they did it. But we focus on that,

and we're wondering about the miracle, and it is a miracle, and I don't want to take anything away from that. I just want to say, look a little deeper. Look a little further, because what Jesus was teaching, he drew the crowd in intimately with foolishness. Yeah, it was time to eat, and yeah, he met a hunger need. Yeah, but they sat as one and ate together as he had provided the food. And what he had been teaching was now more

than academia. It was now part of his life, and they were drawn into that, and they were made a part of that by feasting with him, by eating a meal with him. Matthew chapter 11, verse 19. Matthew chapter 11, Jesus is talking to specifically, well, he's talking to his disciples, but the Pharisees were there, and he's kind of nailing the Pharisees, and he's talking to them about...

How they missed John the Baptist, and they condemned John. And then in Matthew chapter 11, verse 19, he starts talking about himself, and he says, the Son of Man came, eating and drinking, and they say, here's a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. I know you've read that before. I know you've heard that before. What did you think when you read that? Probably nothing. Probably one of those times where it's just

so simple and so obvious, and it goes just right over us, and we take time to stop and think. They were accusing Jesus of being a friend of sinners. Why? Because he ate with them. He sat with them and communed with them, and Jesus tells them that. You accuse me, the Son of Man came eating and drinking. He didn't mean just, I go down the road, I eat and I drink. He means, I sit with the people, and I eat with them, and you accuse me of being

one of them because I commune with them. I am by my eating with them signifying that I'm one of them. I'm communing with them, and so you accuse me of being a wine giver, a glutton, and a drunkard. I don't know if you've thought about it either. I know you have probably once or twice, and maybe it's just kind of flown out, but Jesus spends a whole lot of time in John chapter 6 identifying himself with bread. Verse 48 and verse 51,

he says, writes right out twice, verse 48 and 51, I am the bread of life. Verse 51, he says, I, again, I am the living bread. Again, in verse 51, he says, this bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. Then in verse 53, he says, again, I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. What's he talking about?

He's talking about intimacy and relationship. He's talking about a oneness in relationship, and he uses the most common commodity there is in the world, and that's bread. Not every culture has rice. Not every culture has bread. Not every culture has bread. Not every culture likes rice. I am the rice of the world. I am the pizza of life. Not every culture has pizza.

Every culture has bread. No matter how poor the culture, every culture has bread. Every culture would relate to that statement. Bread is not only a common commodity, it's the most necessary commodity in all of the cultures. If you don't have any food at all, you have bread, and if you have bread, you can live. Bread is the basic common element of life. To every culture in the world. So Jesus is saying, I'm your basic ingredient for life.

Use bread as an example. Another thing he said that's interesting over and over in that chapter is that, except the man, eat of my flesh. I'm the bread of life. You've got to eat the bread to live in the physical. You've got to eat the bread in the spiritual to live. Now, the disciples had a problem with that. People had a problem with that in that chapter. He wants us to eat his flesh. He

wants us to cannibalize him. They couldn't figure out what he was trying to say. He's trying to tell them, it's more than just stats. It's more than just facts and figures. It's more than just learning he is the bread of life and the light of life and the door. It's understanding what those signify as the bread. If bread, I need to eat to live, then somehow I need to eat. I need to feast

on Christ to live. I need to eat his flesh. How do I do that? I read his word. I talk to him. I believe what his word says about him, and I say, Lord, I need you come into my life. Then I'm saved. Then I say, I need you come into my life. Then I'm saved. Then I say, I need you come into my life. Now that I'm saved, Spirit, guide me. I go into his word. This is what I need to do. God, take me. I

trust your word now. I've taken your word. Now apply it to my life. You tell me to love my enemies. Well, there's these people in my life that are real thorns. If I am internalizing Christ, if I am eating of his flesh, then he tells me to love my enemies, to pray for those who despitefully use me and persecute me, to bless those who curse me, to do good unto them. If I am internalizing Christ,

that will be affected in my activity towards others. That's why Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, you're doing more harm than good when you guys come together because you're just being gluttony. You're just eating for yourself. You have no concern for others. It's evident that you have not internalized, not taken in the bread, but he uses bread. He uses food again to exemplify

that. The first of the three temptations that Jesus faced when he went into the wilderness after he was baptized was what? Satan appeared to him after 40 days and said, if you are the son of man, turn these stones into bread. Again, it wasn't so much. I'm not minimizing the fact that if Jesus had done that, he would have been disobedient to the father and disobedient to the father's plan. But I want to add to the understanding of that and say,

not only would he have been disobedient to the father, not only would he have been faithless to the trust that he had in his father, but again, he would be then communing with evil all around food. The major holy days of Judaism are called Feast of Passover. That's an interesting one. If you stop and think about it, you know the story of Passover. You've all seen

the Ten Commandments. I'll remember Charlton Heston and all that. Hopefully you've read it several times too. You know that Passover was instituted as part of the last plague in Egypt. It was the 10th and final of the plagues. Pharaoh actually brought that one on himself. The threat of the death of the firstborn. God told Moses, okay, I'm going to come through

tonight. The angel of death is going to pass through Egypt. He's going to kill the firstborn of every living being, both man and animal. Now, there's only one thing you can do to prevent that in your own households. You each have to take a lamb, a yearling lamb without spot or blemish. You have to take it and you have to kill it and you have to drain the blood. And you have to,

as soon as you've drained the blood into a basin, you have to go to the lentils of each door of the blood across the lentils of each doorway over each house. But that's not all. What did they have to do then? They had to eat. They had to take the lamb and roast it. They had to get bitter herbs and the different parts of the rest of the Passover meal. They had to dress in readiness.

They had to get all their stuff gathered together. They had to cook unleavened bread, which God through Moses told the people that each part of this action would symbolize that particular night. They had to be ready to go quickly so they didn't have enough time to put yeast and bread and let it rise. They had to cook bread quick. They had unleavened bread. Every time they'd eat unleavened bread, it was to remind them

of how quickly God delivered them out of Egypt that particular night. Each part of that meal symbolized something concerning God's redemption of them through that Passover evening. And at that particular evening, all of the children of Israel gathered there in the land of Goshen in Egypt were doing the same thing in their own homes. They were partaking together. And there

was an intimacy that was a part of that meal that evening. We were all one. We're all partaking together. We were all partaking together. We were all partaking together. Taking together of the promised redemption tonight. We're signifying that by our all consuming this meal in the same way together at the same time. And they were instructed then to do that from generation to generation to generation. Celebrate the act of God delivering them by

killing the firstborn of everything else in Egypt by eating a meal together. And it's called the Feast of Passover. And you have the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles. All of the main holy days in Israel, most of them, are celebrated in the by feasts. Now, according to Eastern culture, and I pray we see this a little more in our culture,

when you sit down and eat a meal with someone, you are partaking of their character and nature. You are taking your character and nature and aligning it with them. You are becoming one, fellowshipping together. Yes, you're more than just having a meal together. If you go out, if you go to Hardee's and get a burger, I mean, that's, yeah, there's some of that. But the idea

here is that there's been a meal prepared or brought by both that both of you partake of, the elements of. I think there's good fellowship in the meal together, and that's part of what we're hitting at today. But this is a meal where the food was prepared, probably by the household owner, and the people came together and they all partook of the same meal. Now, maybe they brought stuff in together, I don't know, but they all partook of the elements of the same meal. If you

want to do this, go get a whopper and cut it in half and you both eat the whopper, you know. Then you're, this is the idea. They were partaking of the elements of that meal. Together. And as such, since this piece of bread is here in its whole, and it's got all these elements in it, if I take a part of this, I'm taking elements of the bread and I'm eating it,

and you are too, then we both have elements of the bread together in our system. We are one because we've taken the elements together of the bread. And they saw that in that culture. So that's why they accused Jesus of being a friend of sinners, because he had seated himself at their tables and partaken with them of their foods together, and they hated him for their children. And he was like, that's the way to go.

But then he got you, Jesus, you're like a good friend. He was like, I'm one with you. I'm identified with you where that's concerned. I don't know if you're still in first, I hope you're still in first Corinthians. If you're still in first Corinthians 11, just flip back a page to first Corinthians chapter 10. First Corinthians chapter 10. And if you look down to verse 14 in

your Bible, you probably have a heading that says something similar to idol feasts and the Lord's supper in verse 14. First Corinthians 10, 14, Paul says, therefore, my dear friends flee from The therefore is referring back to what came in the first 13 verses. You go back to verse 1, and Paul is teaching them concerning the fact that all of our forefathers were under the cloud. They all passed through the sea.

They were all baptized unto Moses. He's talking about identification. They were under the cloud of the fire by day, the cloud of fire by night, cloud by day. They were all under that canopy of that cloud. They were identified with it. They all went through the Red Sea together, though none got wet, he says. But they were identified with Moses, which is what baptism signifies, identifying yourself too.

Now, he carries on the same thought, and he says, therefore, verse 14, flee from idolatry. I speak to sensible people. Judge for yourselves what I say is not the cup of thanksgiving, the cup that he's talking about is a communion cup, for which we give thanks, a participation in the blood of Christ, and is not the bread that we break, a participation in the body of Christ. Because there is one loaf, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.

He expresses the thought of Eastern culture right there. There's one loaf, we partake of it together. We're one. We're one body. When we participate with the cup, we're participating together, affirming together. It's the blood of Christ that redeems us, and we're joined together. He says that that's a symbol of that, just as baptism is a symbol of identification.

And so the warnings back in chapter 11 about not doing it unworthily, because we are identifying ourselves with that, but we are joined together, is what I want us to see this morning. We're joined together in that participation, because we're taking from the blood of Christ. We're on the same loaf, because of that time of communing together. Go back to Acts chapter 27, this time, Acts 27, towards the end of the book of Acts.

Acts chapter 27, Paul is on board ship, and he's on his way to Rome, and they were told not to go, because it was winter, and the seas were bad, and the captain of the ship decided to go anyhow, and they hit a bad storm, and the storm is tearing the ship apart. God, the Lord Jesus Christ, appeared to Paul the night before, told him that the ship would be saved as long as everybody stayed put. And for Paul to tell him, that as long as they trusted in God's word through Paul, that they'd all survive. And so he tells them that.

A couple of guys start lowering the lifeboat. They tell him, go, you're going to die. We'll all die. So they cut the lifeboat away. They don't let him go. And then verse 33, it says in chapter 27, just before dawn, Paul urged them all to eat. For the last 14 days, he said, you have been in constant suspense and have gone without food. You haven't eaten anything.

Now I urge you to take some food. You need to survive. Not one of you will lose a single hair from his head. And after he said, this, he took some bread and gave thanks to God in front of them all. And then he broke it and began to eat. And they were all encouraged. Now they didn't celebrate communion there. And I didn't point that out to say that they did.

I pointed it out to show that not only was he saying, this is what we got to do. And I know you're hungry, but he broke the bread after blessing it. And as they ate it, they became one in purpose where this was concerned. They identified with Paul in this because they broke that bread and ate that together. They were one in purpose to trust the Lord through Paul,

through what Paul had said God had told him to do. It's a oneness. Eating a meal together brings this oneness. This breaking of bread together is a vehicle for intimate fellowship. Studies have shown, and you've probably heard this one too, that for a healthier family life, the family needs to eat three to four meals together a week around the dinner table.

And you will see a healthier family life with a minimum of three to four meals a week. Eating together around the dinner table as a family. What is the enemy sought to do where that's concerned? So subtly, so deceitfully. Gets you to turn on the TV. We all go and we may pray together. Oh, you know, thank you, Lord. Hold hands for dinner and all that stuff. Scrape our food on the plate, go down and sit and no interaction.

Or our schedules are so bad. Our schedules are so intense. We're lucky to get one day a week, maybe, where we have a chance to sit around as a family and eat. Aren't those special times when you find yourself doing that? You bet. They're special because it's a vehicle for intimacy. It's a time where you're together and you're sharing and it draws us somehow together

where we can then let the Lord lead. And as Christians, as we focus our conversation on the Lord at those times and seek to let him minister through us to the others at that table, there's a special, special healing, a special time of ministry that happens around the dinner table. If you want a healthier family, try it. Just try it. Just spend three or four nights or three or four meals together during the week.

Fellowshiping with each other in your family. Satan is out to destroy that. And you see that in your own scheduled life. Eating disorders, anorexia, bulimia, as a root, have a focus on self at the exclusion of others. Yes, it's a control thing, but it's seeking to break away from the intimacy that the food should have for those with whom we eat. Again, Satan sticks his ugly head in there

and uses it as a selfish control thing. It's an abuse of food. It's an abuse of that. That is, that can be a vehicle used to draw us together. The church was together constantly, devoting themselves to the word of God, emphasizing Jesus' command to love each other. The church was devoted to the fellowship, to seeking to come alongside, be vulnerable, be transparent, to hold each other up,

to walk with each other, continuing to encourage each other. The church was devoted to breaking bread together, to having those times where they would fellowship with each other, with food, and then in the midst of that, or at the end of that, they would celebrate the Lord's table. They didn't just wait till Passover to do it. They did it every time, practically, that they'd get together from house to house, celebrating because they saw in that the intimacy that they had with one another.

The love of God was emphasized in the midst of that. Their care for one another was emphasized in the midst of that. They identified with each other as they took the bread from one another's food. And they said, this is your bread and mine too. And as I eat this, I'm identifying with you. And they were one in the midst of that. Jesus was coming again, and they shared that intimacy of that.

They shared the intimacy of his love where that was concerned. And the only thing that hindered that was when they let divisions spring up and break people away from that intimacy. We need more times like that together. You mean we need to have more covered dish dinners? Yeah, I'd like to see us do more times where we get together for a covered dish. Just because of what that implies

as the body gets together and sits down with each other and we break bread together and we're saying, I'm identifying. I'm identifying with you. I'm family with you. And I don't mind being called family with you. I don't mind being seen around town with you. You're my family. I want to identify with you in that. And in the midst of that, have communion. Have a time where we'd have communion together

and celebrate that oneness with the Lord. Does that mean we ought to maybe start doing that and having dinners at home fellowships on occasion? Yeah, I think that would be a good idea. Same reason, same function. Time constraints are difficult. If we meet at seven, we say we're going to meet at six to break bread. There's going to be times that it's going to be difficult.

For job situations, for us to do that. But I think we need to go ahead and do it for the intimacy that it implies, that it draws us into. And then in the midst of that, have communion, celebrate the Lord's Supper. But let me encourage you. I think it means with all of us reaching out to one another and saying, why don't you come for dinner? You know, get a couple of couples

and have them come for dinner. Not just perpetually the same couple or couples, but begin to do it as an outreach. Come, invite you over for dinner. We'll break bread together. We'll fellowship together in the Lord. And in the midst of that, we'll have communion together. You don't have to have a pastor there to do that. We've had, we had a baptism at the Winfield City Lake a few years back.

We didn't have any juice. We didn't have any bread. We had potato chips and Dr. Pepper. And we had communion. But the intimacy that's there, the oneness with the Lord, and you see that oneness with each other. That's what they gave themselves to was that oneness, that intimacy with the Lord that flowed through them. And they put down divisions. They put down anything that would seek to corrupt that,

that would hinder. Father, may we do the same. Lord, we are so close to the coming of your son. And we are such a splendid, fragmented body of Christ in this culture today. Lord, only you can bring healing where that's concerned. And only as we are devoted to the apostles' doctrine and devoted to the fellowship and devoted to the breaking of bread and devoted to prayer.

So help us move, even though we're in the midst of the Laodicean age, help us move at the heart of the Philadelphian church. It's tough with schedules. That's the time of the end. We're running to it. But we owe it to our families to at least begin there and then to reach out within the fellowship. Help that to happen, Lord, I pray. Only you can do it. I just pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen. Let's stand together.

The closer we get to the Lord's coming, the closer we get to the Lord's coming, the more we're going to be needed. We're going to need each other for survival. So see this as a survival technique if you want. Because apart from that, the enemy will deceive you and will draw you away from that. Intimacy of fellowship with the Lord and that intimacy of fellowship with the Lord,

with his people, and you will find yourself weak. And exercise won't help you and right eating won't help you. It's going to have to have the balance for groups of Acts chapter 2. So may you be devoted to that. In Jesus' name. For it serves to the king's sake.