Sunday Morning Service

ICorinthians 11 (Click scripture reference for audio access)

“Head Coverings!?” • 11.04.12 • Calvary Christian Fellowship, Sunday Morning Service

Intro.

- Chapter 11 moves us into a new section of the book of first Corinthians. We have noted their Divisions, their Defilement and their lack of Discernment.

- Today, we begin to examine their Disorder within their actual church meetings.

Text

• I Corinthians 11:2 : "Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the traditions just as I delivered them to you." : From the context that comes in the very next verse, it would seem that Paul is being sarcastic with them.

- The Corinthians had been meeting, but the "traditions" or ways in which the church was to meet with God, were being maligned by their lack of attention to detail.

• I Corinthians 11:3-6 : "But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonors his head. But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, for that is one and the same as if her head were shaved. For if a woman is not covered, let her also be shorn. But if it is shameful for a woman to be shorn or shaved, let her be covered." : In Corinth, the church of God needed to be reminded of the authority structure, referring primarily to married people, but equally applicable to the church.

- The "head" refers to direction and leadership. Every married man and every man in church leadership is directly responsible to answer to Jesus regarding their marriage or their ministry.

- The word "woman" speaks toward married women who were to recognize their husbands as the head of their home.

- For the ladies who are single, you have no male head, save the leadership in this church when you are here, and the Lord when you are away.

- This is not a statement of inequity, but of function. Male and female are equals, but God has prescribed an order that comes from Him. There is even order in the Godhead!

- Jesus the Son subjected Himself to His Father's plan. In heaven, it is God the Father who has given Christ the preeminence and made Christ's name higher and greater than every other name.

- This is the divine principle. Here is the human intersection. A man was not to pray or prophesy with His head covered at church and a woman was not to do so with her head uncovered!

- Both are praying or preaching. Prophesying in this context, means to speak forth God's Word to the congregation that is gathered.

- In this particular context, a man praying with a head covering was flaunting his position in the world. A head covering for a man in that culture generally spoke of their economic situation.

- A woman without a head covering was either signaling her willingness to be married or advertising her trade as a prostitute! Either decision brought dishonor to their respective heads.

- Imagine this situation: A man says, "I feel like dressing up in a three piece suit." The woman says, "I'd like to wear this mini-skirt and low cut blouse?"

- What would your attention be focused on in the church? What message would these people be speaking before they even spoke a word?

- A man with a head covering was showing off his superiority to others, thus shaming His head, Jesus, who is the only Superior, thus detracting from the glory due to God.

- A woman who was married and unveiled was sending a confusing and mixed message about her intentions within the church, thus distracting the church from the Lord and dishonering her hubby!

- Paul tells her, "If you act that way, you might as well go all the way and shave your head!" That would have been, in that culture, a sign of great immorality.

- These actions were explorations of personal freedom but were divorced from the principles that Paul laid down in chapters 8-10.

• I Corinthians 11:7-12 : "For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man. For man is not from woman, but woman from man. Nor was man created for the woman, but woman for the man. For this reason the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels. Nevertheless, neither is man independent of woman, nor woman independent of man, in the Lord. For as woman came from man, even so man also comes through woman; but all things are from God." : God created man in His image and for His glory. A man needs to understand that his economic place in this World is not what he is to advertise. He is to advertise God's goodness.

- Woman, a married woman or a single Christian lady is meant to advertise her husband's goodness. She is to be her husband's greatest support and biggest fan.

- Paul is not saying that He made man in His image and then created woman with some other template. Genesis 2 tells us that God created them male and female in His image.

- Paul's consideration here is not that a man or woman is more or less in the image of God. It's their order. Woman, Eve, was created for Adam. Therefore, women are meant to complement.

- Man was created first and was without suitable help. Woman was created to fill that void.

- On this account, noting God's order in creation, women in the Corinthian church were to have a symbol honoring that sovereign choice. This was a testimony to the watching world and the angels!

- Angels? There is no shortage of wild speculation here. The term "angel" can also be translated "messenger." It's likely that this was a colloquial way to refer to a Pastor.

- By choosing modesty and honoring your role, you make the job of your Pastor much easier. But men, don't get ahead of yourself. You don't get to live arrogantly.

- Yes, women came from Adam's rib, but now men's ribs are replicated in the womb of a woman! And even after one gets done with that little argument, all things are from God!

- Paul's point is that in the church, we need men AND women who love and glorify God!

• I Corinthians 11:13-16 : "Judge among yourselves. Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him? But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her; for her hair is given to her for a covering. But if anyone seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor do the churches of God." : Corinthians tell me, doesn't this make sense? Aren't you pushing the limits of propriety? Look around at nature.

- Generally speaking, long hair is reserved for women and short hair for men. That long hair is a natural covering that comes from the Lord that their society was seeking to move away from.

- Alternately, men generally have shorter hair. Does this represent a standard that is to be held within the church today? No.

- But the principle remains: God has ordained women and men to live in a way that is appropriate for the sex that He has sovereignly chosen them to live in!

- In the church, we recognize that there are differences and distinctives and in deference to God's way of ordering them, we celebrate and submit to them.

- A man who sought long hair in this culture was considered effeminate, which is a blatant rebellion against what God created him to be. The same was true for a woman with short hair.

- Some felt perhaps that this was unfair and would begin to fight about it. The word "contentious" means to become argumentatitive.

- Paul lets them know that there isn't another custom within any other church.

- These are minimal requirements to meet when they came together as a church. Paul is not trying to burden them with a thousand pet peeves.

- This was minimal and necessary for them to carry on this way in order for their meetings to have the maximum potential.

• I Corinthians 11:17-19 : "Now in giving these instructions I do not praise you, since you come together not for the better but for the worse. For first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it. For there must also be factions among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you." : "These instructions" encompasses what has gone before and what's coming up. When they came together, it wasn't a good thing.

- God intends our meetings to be good things. He wants to instruct us, encourage us and build us up for what is coming next. He intends that that flow will also happen through you!

- But when the Corinthians got together on this point, they got together and it would have been better for them not to come together at all.

- When they came together as a church, they were divided, pointing to their dissension and tension with one another.

- However much of that was true, Paul believed it because that is what those attitudes eventually reveal. Where there are divisions in the mind, there will be factions in the group.

- The word "factions" comes from our word "heresy." That is a deviation from doctrine in our minds, but in the mind of the Apostle Paul, this was a deviation from doctrine, lived out in flesh.

- You cannot separate yourself from what you truly believe. Your life is doctrine lived moment by moment! Their actions proved that their thinking about themselves was askew.

- But not all were like that. Some were genuine. The word "approved" comes from the marketplace, where certain vendors would refuse to accept counterfeit coinage.

- These men of integrity were called "dokimos" or as the NKJV puts it, "approved."

- There were divisions and factions, but that only revealed those who were genuine. The sense of this is that the genuine ones were much easier to spot because of all the counterfeit that there was.

• I Corinthians 11:20-22 : "Therefore when you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper. For in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others; and one is hungry and another is drunk. What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I do not praise you." : They came together under the guise of celebrating the Lord's Supper together, but acted in complete selfishness.

- In that early church, when most believers gathered together in homes, they engaged in a full meal together. Those who were rich and those who were slaves came together to worship the Lord.

- But when they were there, they stepped over each other to get at the goods, eating and drinking as if that were the point!

- They ate to actually eat! In so doing, they ate as they would have done during their work week, as if this was an ordinary meal. But it was not. This was God's church!

- Instead of thinking of their own needs, they were to think of the needs of others, especially the poor whose meal with the church was probably the best one they would have the chance to eat!

- There was nothing for Paul to praise them about in this case.

• I Corinthians 11:23-26 : "For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, 'Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.' In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.' For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes." : Paul resets the Corinthian mindset, reminding them first that their gathering together was to culminate not in a human tradition, but a divine institution.

- Paul had received these instructions from the Lord and gave them to the Corinthians. Communion is not man's idea. It is God's idea!

- When Jesus corrected the Sadducees about divorce, he returned to the original passage regarding marriage. Paul just did that regarding the authority structure inherant with man's creation.

- In order to correct the Corinthians about their love feast, he now takes them right back to the night that communion became a reality.

- Jesus Christ, the Lord, on the same night in which He was betrayed. We know the facts, but feel that. One of His chosen men betrayed Him to His death.

- Jesus knew this would happen. Scripture had spoken of it typically through King David's betrayal, but that does not take any of the sting from the words.

- On that same night when He was betrayed, He took bread. I might have taken vengeance! I  might have had some holy revenge! Not Jesus.

- These were not ideal conditions. The people that He was serving were boasting of their strength to hide their cowardice and one was stealthily moving toward a heinous act!

- With all of that context, Jesus still took the bread and gave thanks! Why? Because in the act that this was representing, every heinous act and every childish response would be forgiven!

- He took the bread and broke it in order to separate it for their consumption. When He passed it around, He ascribed it's significance. This bread is My body!

- This bread is no longer an ordinary loaf. It is tied mystically to Christ, symbolically becoming their tie to what He was about to do.

- When they ate of it, they were to do so remembering Him. We are not to remember a creed or a confession. We are to remember Him! He who has given us life by giving His own life!

- In the same manner, meaning in just the same way, He took the cup and blessed it after supper. In the original evening, this seems to have taken place after the meal had been consumed.

- In their hearing, Jesus said, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. What an astounding phrase to use with these Jewish men, who had studied God's covenants.

- Each one that God made in history was ratified by the blood of an innocent substitute. Here was Jesus offering His own blood for them to seal the covenant, the promise that God was making!

- When they drank it, they were to memorialize Jesus, remembering that their fellowship with God was contingent upon the worthiness of His blood!

- They were to take this together, with this as their common theological thought. Communion is centered on Christ's worthiness to bring us into right relation with Christ.

- We do it together with a common understanding, recognizing that Christianity is not a solo sport, but a community bonded together in the blood of Jesus.

- That is the "past" and "present" element of communion. We have been saved by an act that is past and we presently enjoy the benefit of relationship, but there is a future element as well.

- Every time that we partake of communion, we are making a public proclamation that His death frees us to have a relationship with God, binds us together and that we await His return!

• I Corinthians 11:27-32 : "Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.  But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.  For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world." :  That is what the supper is meant to signify. Whoever partakes of this meal in an unworthy manner would be guilty of the body and blood.

- The word "unworthy" has been used to batter people for years, as if one needed to approach with a certain level of holiness. That's not the case. No one is worthy.

- This speaks toward someone not discerning the proper value of the exercise.

- That person who takes the communion without taking into account that which it represents is guilty. This is not just another religious act that earns points with God. That person is guilty.

- This is why I call us to be sure that we have entered into a covenant with Christ by trusting Him. Communion is not for unbelievers! On that account, examine yourself!

- We again see the word related to that which is genuine. He is saying, "Do you really belong to Christ? Does this ceremony accurately reflect your belief?"

- One who would take communion in that early church setting, would be practicing the greatest hypocrisy and many were partaking without that genuine walk, were finding themselves judged.

- But if we would look at ourselves and critically understand our place before the Lord, we would not be judged.

- Even if there is an act whereby God allows us to be judged, it is His chastening instructing hand that is doing that.

• I Corinthians 11:33,34 : "Therefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest you come together for judgment. And the rest I will set in order when I come." : How simple all of this was. Be what you have been ordained to be and let others eat before you!

- Discern that you are eating with the body of Christ who are bought by the blood of Christ. That's what communion symbolizes.

- Don't come hungry. Just eat before you come and top off when you get here! The communion was not to be for them. It was to be for Christ and taking it as something for them perverted it.

- Whatever more there was, Paul was going to take care of when he came to them.

Conclusion
- As we move toward communion now, let us remember that God has ordained the life that we are to lead. Let us live in such a way as to bring glory to Him.

- His communion is a time to remember Him and remember that those we take it with are more important than ourselves.

- When we take it that way, we are discerning Christ's body and are accurately enjoying what Christ intended when He gave it to us.