Sermon preached on Sunday, August 19, 2012 at Garden Valley Chapel during our morning worship service based on 1 Corinthians 11:17.

Turn in your Bible, if you will, to the eleventh chapter of the book of 1 Corinthians - 1 Corinthians eleven where we embark on a new study titled, "Celebrating the Lord´s Table."

I invite you to stand in the reading of God´s Word. Read 1 Cor 11:17-34.

William Barclay has said -

"No passage in the whole New Testament is of greater interest than this."

It is of great interest for in this passage we have the first recorded account of the words of Christ. 1 Corinthians was written in the Spring of 55 A.D. while the earliest gospel, Matthew, was written shortly after, somewhere between 55 and 60 A.D.

Not only that but it is of great interest because it deals with the topic of THE LORD´S TABLE, which is one of the two ordinances instituted by Christ.

THE LORD´S TABLE - also referred to as COMMUNION or THE LORD´S SUPPER - and baptism are the two significant ordinances within Protestant Christianity.

The reason the church attaches so much significance to them is that the Lord Jesus Christ instituted and commanded both; simple as that.

So much so that if a person professes to know, believe, and follow Christ and does not observe these two ordinances, that person ought to question their own commitment to Christ.

Jonathan Edwards put it this way:

"Surely they don´t act like Christians who refuse to commemorate Christ. If persons profess themselves to be Christians, they ought to act like Christians so that their practice and profession may agree together and that they may not act inconsistently with themselves, making a show as though they were Christians in some things and in others as though they would have nothing to do with Christ."

Acting like a Christian is remembering Christ; it is practicing what we profess to be God´s instruction for us.

There are some things we may struggle to know the will of God in the Christian life, but these ordinances are Christ´s clear commands and thus must be obeyed.

If Christ says, "this do in remembrance of me," (Lk 22:29; 1 Cor 11:24-25) He means this do - no questions asked.

*We ought not to take these ordinances lightly nor are we to ignore them.

So let me begin by giving you a historical context before we immerse ourselves into the text of Scripture.