10-04-20 Kevin Goins - Recognizing The Unity of the Body of Christ

Recognizing the Unity of the Body of Christ
1 Corinthians 11:17-34
I (11:23) “For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you….”
Paul uses these technical terms because he wants the Corinthians to know he did not make this up.  It did not originate with him.  But this account of the Lord’s Supper was passed on to him o_______________, probably by the A_________________.

II Then Paul says (11:23) “For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you:  The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread ….”
 That word “betrayed” speaks volumes.  First, it reinforces what we said about the historical r___________________ of Paul’s account.

III There is something else about this betrayal:  We cannot overlook the fact that at the very moment when Jesus was using the Lord’s Supper to explain the meaning of his death,* that was also the very moment _______________ chose to betray Jesus.
 By trying to take God’s throne then, and by trying to take God’s place or rulership in our life now, we show that we are b_______________________ like Judas.
 (11:23-26) “Jesus … 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.’  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.’  For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”

IV Last, it is significant that Paul says that the Lord’s Supper was established on the night Judas betrayed Jesus, because Paul has been making the point, in the verses surrounding our text, that the way the Corinthians have been celebrating the Lord’s Supper amounts to a betrayal of ___________________. 
 The Corinthians celebrated the Lord’s Supper in a way that d_________________ the church.
 (11:20) “When you come together, it is 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!”
 (11:29) “For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself.”
V I am reading a book by Robert P. Jones entitled White Too Long, and the thesis is that for too long American Christianity has been just as much about being ____________ as it has been about being ____________________.
 This book has shattered some of the things I believed for many years about white evangelical Christianity.  I want to share three of these: 

A. First, I assumed all my life that while the church may have t___________________ slavery, it was not actually in s_______________ of slavery.  Then I found out that the Southern Baptist Church, the largest group of evangelicals in the U.S., came into existence in order to defend slave _______________.
 Basil Manly Sr., who convinced Southern Baptists to separate from Northern Baptists over the issue of slavery, and, who thereby created the SBC, was recognized as the leading ________________ defender of slavery.
Genesis 4:15 “Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him.”

B.  Second, I always thought that while the church may have tolerated slavery, at least Christian masters treated their slaves with m_________ dignity and humaneness.

C. Third, I always thought that the reason most African-Americans attended their own churches was because they did not like ________ we did church.

VI Here is my final point:  With all that white Christians have done over the last 250 years to arouse in African-Americans a hatred for the Christian faith,* it is nothing less than a miracle that, according to the Pew Research Center, ________% of African-Americans identify themselves as Christians today.
 That is dramatic proof that people do not become Christians because of people who call themselves Christians.  They become Christians because of ___________.