Sam Mikhael - July 5, 2026
/Transcript
I've been here with you this morning, she's just not feeling well, it's completely my fault. We've been dragging her all over the nation, we just drove down from Virginia about 14 hours straight and we're heading off to Ireland, Lord willing, in a couple of days to do some ministry and then over to England, so she's tired. But she sends her love and we're very thankful again for your kindnesses towards us. I want to talk this morning for a short bit about some of the fundamentals of our meeting.
Now, if you were here the last time I was here, you'll remember this slide because this is what we spoke on the last time that we're here. There is a verse in Acts chapter 2, verse 42, really it introduces the meat of the book, and Dr. Luke is telling us this, that the disciples continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine number one, in fellowship number two, in breaking of bread number three, and in prayers. These are the pillars of the New Testament church, the established pillars are these four things.
Now, the last time that we were with you, we spent some time in the apostles' doctrine and we looked at exactly what that meant, the foundation of what we believe, why we believe, and in whom we believe. This morning in the will of the Lord, I would like to spend a little bit of time, there's a few common slides here, so I won't take too much time to go through them, but you'll remember that in the book of Ecclesiastes, we speak of a three-fold cord, and the writer says one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves, but a three-fold cord is not quickly broken. The church has a four-fold cord, so it cannot be broken, it cannot be broken, those things. If we continue in these things, we will please the God and Father of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
So as we've said, we've talked about the apostles' doctrine, and there are three more. Now, I only have one message with you this morning, and I thought I would skip ahead and we're going to look at the breaking of bread this morning, what we enjoyed not so long ago here in this room. So the time that we have remaining, we're going to look at the breaking of bread. For those of you who would like to follow up here so that you can keep everything before you, please feel free to do so, but also feel free to refer to your own Bibles if that's your desire.
But for convenience, I've put everything up here, I'm not too sure which is the best place to stand, where I don't block everybody's vision, sensitive to the folks on this side. But 1 Corinthians chapter 11 tells us these things concerning the Lord's Supper. But in the following instructions, I do not commend you, because when you come together, it is not for the better, but for the worse. For in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you.
And I believe it in part, for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. When you come together, it is not the Lord's Supper that you eat, for in eating each one goes ahead with his own meal, one goes hungry, another gets drunk, what? Do you not 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 commend you for this? No, no, I will not. For I received from the Lord that which also I delivered unto you that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body which is given for you, this due in remembrance of me."
In the same way, also he took the cup after sup, saying, "This cup is the New Testament or the New Covenant in my blood, this due, 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." Until he come. Let's ask the Lord's blessing on the reading of his word.
Father, we thank thee again for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed, where would thee be without him? We pray, Father, that the things that we look at this morning in thy word would cause our hearts to draw closer to him, to love him more, to serve him better. Take away our love for sinning and replace it with a love for the Lord Jesus Christ.
We ask these things in his name. Amen. All right. Let's talk for a moment about the church at Corinth.
These are some excavated recently, fairly recently actually excavated ruins that are in Corinth. I can't say that this is where the assembly was held, but there's some recently excavated things in Corinth. It's a local church that had several issues that you can probably perceive from the morning's readings. So much so that Paul says, "Many of you are weak and ill, and some have actually fallen asleep."
That's an interesting phrase, by the way. We don't have time to look into it. But in the New Testament, the Word of God never speaks about a believer dying. You read about it in the Old Testament, Moses died, Joshua died, but you do not read about a New Testament believer dying with two exceptions, the two people who were raised from the dead.
Because the idea is that we wanted to make sure they were dead so that the resurrection from the dead was something to take note of. But as far as believers who fell asleep, that's how they're described. But Paul is taking a very serious approach, and he says, "There's some of you who have fallen asleep or have died, because some of the things that are being practiced in the assembly, these things are serious, they need to be taken note of." So we ask ourselves the question this morning, "Which sin at Corinth," because there were many unfortunately, "was so serious that it brought divine judgment upon the people of the Lord?
Was it the revelry and the rivalry of chapters one through three? Was it the scandalous case of incest in chapter five? Was it the disgraceful lawsuits or sexual immorality of chapter six? Was it the fellowship with idols and demons in chapter eight through chapter ten?
Was it the refusal of some women to wear a head covering in chapter 11? Were any of these things the cause of those who had fallen asleep? They were ill, they were weak, and some had fallen asleep. What was the cause for these things?
It was none of these things. The divine judgment of God did not fall for any of these things. The Lord's disciplinary judgment was exercised on those who took part of the bread and cup without recognizing these as symbols of the Lord's body and blood, failing to discern the Lord's body. And they partook without recognizing this as a symbol of unity of the church, leading to their lack of consideration for others also failing to discern the physical, not the physical body, but the spiritual body of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I just wanted at the outset to discuss that the reason we hold this meeting first, which you notice today is the first day of the week, right? No matter what the world tells you, it's not Monday. The first day of the week is Sunday, and the first meeting that we hold is the Lord's Supper. And the reason it is first day, first time is because it is first in the heart of God.
It is the meeting that is first described in the Scripture. It is important because it is the heart of our salvation. If we do not understand and we do not perceive and we do not respect the death, burial, resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, there's no salvation in us. I was having a discussion and I don't want to get too personal, but it was very apropos.
It was a wonderful lead-in. A brother came up to me during the intermission between the two meetings and said, "You know, I always wondered before I got saved, why did the Lord Jesus Christ die? I was in a place where it was not revered, it was not reverenced, it was not central to the doctrines and faith where I went. It is the central key.
It is the center of geography." You happen to know why everything is called West and East and Middle East and Far East. It's because the Middle East where Christ died, that is the center of geography. It is the center of time.
It is the center of history. And one day it will be the center of prophecy when the Lord Jesus Christ returns. The Lord Jesus Christ's death is central to all things that we hold dear. Indeed, it is the rock upon which we stand.
He was delivered for our offenses. And if he was not delivered, our offenses are still with us. By the way, Paul goes on to say he was raised again for our justification. So these things are vital for us to understand, to grasp, not only to appreciate, but to practice.
Why is the breaking of bread so important, I might ask? Why do we meet every Sunday morning? Well, we do it after the pattern of the New Testament assembly. We do it because this is what the disciples who were in the presence of the Lord, who received first instruction from him.
By the way, this is often a two-part message and I'm trying to condense it, so you're going to forgive me. When Paul says, "I delivered unto you that which I have received," he's being a lawyer. Paul was by practice a lawyer, Luke was by practice a doctor, right? But they still fellowship together, that's okay.
What Paul is saying is that I am giving you a testimonial. This is something that I can put my hand on heart and say, "This is how it was. That which I have received, I am giving to you. I am testimony of what the Lord Jesus Christ has told me, delivered unto me that which I have received."
And Luke goes on to say this, "On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to part on the next day and he prolonged his speech until midnight. Don't worry, we're going to get out of here before midnight. Maybe not long before midnight, but we're going to get out of here on time." We follow the pattern of the New Testament scripture.
This is why we meet and break bread every Sunday. You know in the Roman world, Sunday was just another ordinary day, it was just another work day. As a matter of fact, the place where my father and mother were raised Sunday was a work day. That's what everybody, they all went to work on a Sunday.
The fact that the church met until midnight, by the way, it's not because they started at 9. 30 in the morning and went to midnight. It's probably because they started at the end of the work day when the sun went down. It implies that the believers gathered after laboring hours and showed commitment, not convenience.
Now one of the wonderful things about coming to an assembly where you only know people to a certain extent is that you can speak the word of God because nobody can say, "Well, they're talking to me because I don't know you that well," although your kindness and your generosity towards us notwithstanding. We need to put first things first. The meeting at 9. 30 in the morning here if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is not an option, it is commanded, "This, do in remembrance of me."
And in the old times, the disciples after they had labored all day, they went to remember the Lord because the Lord commanded them to do this. It was showing commitment and not convenience. Well, as an introduction, I want to ask the question, "Why is it that we do this every single Sunday?" Well, we've answered it because Luke tells us that that's what the disciples did.
But why, Dr. Luke, why should we? What's the purpose behind it? Why do we need to do it so often?
Well, the answer is in what the Lord Jesus Christ said, "For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show forth my death, the Lord's death, until he I come." It's an often process, but it's also because we are a forgetful people. You're not forgetful, are you? No, I'm forgetful, I'm forgetful.
Just ask my wife, I'm forgetful. God forbid that I should forget what the Lord Jesus Christ has done. The hymn writer, the old Scottish preacher, wrote to him, and it went like this, "When I stand before the throne, dressed in beauty, not my own. When I see thee as thou art, and love thee with an unsinning heart, then, Lord, shall I fully know not till then how much I owe.
When we reach glory and we have sinless hearts and minds that cannot be affected by time and fatigue and forgetfulness and struggle, then we'll worship as we ought." We sang that. "Then we shall be where we should be and things that are not known or could be soon shall be." When we get to glory, it'll all be made right.
But on this side of eternity, we need continual remembrance, reminders of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for us. Solomon gives us a wonderful example of this, by the way. I don't know if you've read this in Ecclesiastes, but it's near the end of Ecclesiastes, Chapter 9, and he's talking about wisdom all through the first part of Ecclesiastes, and he says, "This seemed good." This seemed good.
We don't have time to get a look at all of these different places, but he stops here at Chapter 9, and he says something remarkable. He says, "This seems great to me." Take note of this one. All these other things have been good thus far, but this is great.
What's great? King Solomon. This is great. There was a little city and few men in it, and a great king came against it and besieged it, building great siege works or bulwarks against it.
But there was found in it a poor, wise man, and he, by his wisdom, delivered the city. There it is, yet no one remembered that poor man. I want to analogize this to our situation, to the humanity in which we live. There was a little city.
This cosmos in which we live is a remarkable place. It's remarkable how little humanity takes up of it. Now, I don't know if there's any scientists in the room or even physicists or astrophysicists, but don't worry. We're not going to go that deep.
But you know, Romans 1 tells us that the things we see around us should point us to God. The creatorial power of our God should show his handiwork to even the youngest amongst us. And so I asked the question this morning, exactly how big is the universe? We've talked about a little city.
That's our Earth. And there was a great king that came against it. Why is it a little city? I mean, listen, you drive from Virginia down to Orlando in one day, and you'll find out maybe from human standpoint, it's not all that little.
But this is indeed a little city. And I asked the question to prove that, how big is the universe? Bear with me here, OK? My first degree was in physics, so sometimes you fall back in your old age on those things you learned first.
In the small part of the universe that we can see that man has discovered, there is an estimated two trillion galaxies. Now I can't even begin to understand what two trillion is, OK? But there are two trillion galaxies. And I want to point out that's not solar systems, that's galaxies.
Why do I point that out? You see, each galaxy, such as the one in which we inhabit, called the Milky Way, there are about 400 billion stars. So 400 billion stars, and now multiply that by two trillion. You get a concept of what we understand.
And the latest cosmologists tell us that they have perceived maybe, on the outside, 4% of the universe. You get a concept of how little we are, a little city, a little city. The Andromeda galaxy, by the way, is the nearest galaxy to us. Milky Way is us, Andromeda is next to us.
And that galaxy is roughly 2. 5 million light years away. It takes light 100,000 years just to cross that one galaxy. And remember, light years is not a time, but is a distance, how far light will travel in a year.
100,000 light years just to go across that one galaxy. And by the way, just in case you need one more thing to worry about, let me tell you this. The Andromeda galaxy is moving towards us about 68 miles a second, or one quarter of a million miles per hour. It's coming.
Okay. You get a concept of how big these things are, how large they are, and God spoke them into being. By the word of his power, that's how these things happened. It's a remarkable concept.
Isaiah, in attempting to describe to us the power of God, he puts it this way. He says, "Who has measured out the waters in the hollow of his hand." The hollow of your hand is when you just hold your hand out, and there's a little divot there between the thenar and the epathenar eminence right there. That's the hollow of your hand.
And God says, "Okay, there's the waters for all of the world." There are places just outside Guam, which is called the Marianas Trench, which goes down seven miles plus. You can't stand there because it would crush you. The depths of that place, light has never pierced.
There are creatures that have never seen life in that place. God says, "I measured out the waters in the hollow of my hand." Oh, let me tell you something else. Not only has he measured out the waters in the hollow of his hands, he's marked off the heavens with a span.
How big is the heavens? I don't know. There's no man on earth that knows today. But God says, "This is how far.
This is how big the heavens are." I measured it the other day. It's about nine and three-quarter inches between the tip of my thumb to the tip of my baby finger. All right?
And God says, "You want to know how big the universe is?" There it is. I've measured it out with the span of my hand. Get a concept of a little city.
Somewhere in there, a speck that I can't even begin to see nor wash off is the earth. And on that earth, there are tiny creatures that are so physically small and insignificant to the universe. But God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Oh, if I could talk to you about the hands of God.
They didn't only measure out the waters and measure out the span, but they were pierced for you and for me. Somewhere in the midst of that hand, that speck that he created, was so loved by him that he bore in his own body on the tree, our sins. Small city, but loved, but loved. There were few men, wow, small city, few men.
The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. As great as these celestial bodies are, none of them are made in his image, but you are. God said, "Let us make man in our image after our likeness." I put this slide in because oft times when we do some counseling, we have folks who think so little of themselves that they consider doing things that really shouldn't be mentioned from a public place, and so I won't say the word, but you know what I'm trying to tell you.
As great and wonderful as these celestial beings are, as large and as powerful and as full of energy and as beautiful as they are, cosmology is a beautiful subject. The world is a beautiful place, can you imagine what it was like before sin entered in? But none of them were made in the image of God, you are. That's what gives you value.
That's why the Lord Jesus Christ said, "A bruised reed will I not break, and a smoking flax I won't quench." Even though the physical changes have altered a body and caused it to be broken, bent over like a flax plant, I won't end it by breaking it. The smoking embers of humanity in some of the individuals that have fallen prey to the complications of physical difficulties, I won't quench that life because they were made in God's image. When I was a young man, there was a boy who was born in our assembly with Down Syndrome, bisomy 13, and he had the same birthday as I, and we grew up together, and we shared all kinds of different events in the assembly.
His parents were in the assembly, my parents were in the assembly. He couldn't do things that I could do. I had access and ability to things that he could never have access to. But was his soul any less valuable?
Was it a soul not that Christ died for? A smoking flax? A bruised reed? Christ died for these as well.
All of humanity, Christ loved the world and gave himself for us. I just throw in here a quote from one of my favorite authors, C. S. Lewis, "We should have humility, absolutely.
But humility is not thinking less of yourself, in other words, degrading yourself. But it's thinking of yourself less." It's exactly what John the Baptist said to his disciples concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. He must increase and I must decrease.
This is all a little tangent, so you'll forgive me. We need to get back onto track here. David says, "When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man? What is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you care for him?"
But we go back to our little great wisdom that Solomon said, "There was a little city and few men, but thank God in that little city God loved those few men." He loved humanity and gave himself for it. Against this city came a great king. Of course, we can imagine who that great king is.
Now it's not that the devil is omnipotent or omniscient, he isn't, but he's been around since the beginning and the Bible says he was a murderer from the beginning. I'll leave that one there. The first murderer, by the way, wasn't Cain, it was the devil. We'll leave that for another day.
But this great king, this one who caused our forefather and foremother to fall has come against us all. He has come to you and to me to sin and every one of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And this great king was opposed by another great king? Well in a sense the answer is yes, but in another sense the answer is no.
He was opposed by a poor, wise man. I'd like to suggest to you that's the Lord Jesus Christ. Second Corinthians, Paul tells us, "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty or by his poverty might become rich." How poor was the Lord Jesus Christ?
How poor was the Lord Jesus Christ? You know, I was supposed to put a coin in my pocket and I didn't. All right, I'm going to do it this way. They came to him and they wanted to catch him.
And so they said to him, "Should we pay taxes?" Aha. If he says yes, he's for the Romans. If he says no, we'll get the Romans after him.
We got him. We got him. And so what did he do? He reached into his pocket and he pulled out his RDF blocking wallet and said, "No, he didn't.
The God of heaven who made all things without him was not anything made that was made, didn't have a coin in his pocket." He said, "Somebody, please give me a coin." He says, "Whose images is this? Whose superscription is this?
It's Caesar's. Well, render under Caesar what is Caesar's, but render unto God what is God's." There was a time when the tax man came along. Tax man doesn't visit you, does he?
Wow, I would have expected a response. The tax man doesn't visit you. Well, the tax man visited the Lord Jesus. And what did he do?
He went down to the local credit union and no, he said, "Go down and do a little bit of fishing for me." Now, I love to ask this question. And in all the assemblies that I've been to, I've never got a positive answer. Even in the fishing villages in the Bahamas where 90% of the men go fishing every day.
So I'm going to ask, and I really hope nobody breaks my record. Have you ever gone fishing and found money in the mouth of a fish? I'm not saying you didn't sell the fish and got money, that's a different story. But even if you opened up a big mouth bass, or a trout, or a marlin, or any other type of fish, and found money inside, the first time the disciples went down, they found money in the mouth of the fish, and that's how he paid his taxes.
He would say, "The foxes, they have their holes, and the birds of the air, they have their nests from low to high, from poor to wealthy rich. They all have a place to lay their head, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head." There is one place he laid his head, did you know that? Having given up the spirit, he bowed his head.
Bowing his head is the same word as laying his head, it's the same Greek word. That's the only place he found, was his own chest on Calvary's Cross. But all of that pales in significance, all of that poverty pales in significance, when we look at Calvary's Cross. He was stripped of everything, he was stripped of his humanity, his visage was so marred, more than any man in his form, more than the sons of men, that's the old English language, what does that mean?
It means that his visage was so marred that you couldn't tell who he was, this is how you know me. When Brother George came and greeted me at the door, I recognized him because I saw his face. Yeah, I might see him in silhouette and guess who he was. But the minute I saw his face, I knew him and he knew me.
The visage of the Lord Jesus Christ was so marred, you couldn't tell who he was. That's what the Bible's telling you. His form, his body was so bruised and beaten, it didn't look human. His humanity was taken from him.
His clothes were taken from him. The Bible tells us that he endured the cross, despising the shame. David describes it this way, I am a worm and no man, a reproach of men, remarkable things. What does that mean?
Did you know that the rulers and the high priests didn't speak to the Lord Jesus Christ when he was on the cross? They treated him like no man. Read the word of God carefully. He said that if he be lifted, he said that he would come down from the cross.
It's all in the third person, it's not first person. They had their back to him and they were speaking to the people. They treated him as a non-human. And then finally, he was suspended between heaven and earth.
You ever wonder why? Why was he put up on the gibbet of shame? It's as if we were being told that neither had any place for him, neither heaven nor earth, there was no place. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he were rich, everything was made by him.
He owns the cattle on a thousand hills and the wealth in every mine. He was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that we through his poverty might be made rich. But by doing, forgive me, but by his doing you are Christ Jesus who became to us the wisdom of God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, Paul says. Later on he goes on to say, "But those who are called both Jew and Greek, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God."
All this poverty was for a wisdom, was for a reason. He took upon himself our form and then he took upon himself our burden and he bore that burden to Calvary and he endured the cross and he sustained all of the wrath of God. This is such an important key point. You remember Elisha on Mount Carmel, you remember the story?
There he was with all of the prophets of Baal and they were cutting themselves and they were crying to Baal and by the middle of the day, near the end of the day, they were almost exsanguinated from exhaustion. And then the man of God comes and he builds an altar and he puts on the wood and he puts on the sacrifice. And just to show that God is all powerful, he says, "Go get 12 barrels of sea water." People often ask the question, "Where did they get water?
There was no rain." Well, the sea was right there. Salt water burns at a much slower rate or evaporates at a much slower rate than water that is non-salinated, but 12 barrels of water went on and there was a ditch dug around it to make sure that the water was held. And then the fire came down, you could just see it in your mind's eye, and everything went, everything went, the sacrifice and the wood and the water and the stone.
Do you know the power in the fire that must have been there to actually turn stone to dust? And what happened? The sacrifice was still needed. There were more sacrifices that came after that Mount Carmel experience.
And so what happened is the fire consumed the sacrifice, but on Calvary's Cross something altogether different happened. Oh yes, there was fire and it came down from heaven, just like on Mount Carmel, and it was just as severe and just as fierce and just as burning. But on Calvary's Cross, the sacrifice consumed the fire, not the fire consuming the sacrifice. There is therefore now no condemnation for those of us who are in Christ Jesus.
No more fire. The sacrifice consumed the fire. The Lord Jesus Christ took the wrath. He bore it all.
There's nothing left to bear. All we need do is trust in His saving power, the wisdom of God beyond the comprehension of men. What is the end result? Well, they were delivered by this poor, wise man.
Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise took part of the same that through death he might destroy the one who had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. It's a remarkable story. The wisdom is remarkable. He used the weapon of the enemy to destroy the enemy.
The weapon of the enemy is death, and he used death to destroy the enemy. Doesn't it remind you of David Goliath? Remember the story of David Goliath? David hit Goliath with the stone, and he went down.
But what did he do afterwards? What did he do afterwards? He went and he pulled out that huge sword. You can see that little boy pulling out that huge sword out of the seat, and he took the giant's head clean off of his shoulders, and he came out of the valley with the giant's head, evidence of victory, evidence of victory.
He used the enemy's weapon to destroy the enemy. It's a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. He used the devil's key weapon, death, to destroy the enemy, to destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. So why is the breaking of bread so important?
Boy, I hope you have an answer to that now. I really do. I don't know if you sing this hymn, but I find it to be one of the dearest in the hymnal. Ruby Viney's hymn comes to mind.
Oh, that we never might forget what Christ has suffered for our sake, to save our souls and make us meet of all his glories to partake. But keeping this in mind, press on to glory and the victor's crown. But gracious Lord, when we reflect, how apt to turn the eye from thee? Forget thee.
Two with sad neglect and listen to the enemy. And yet to find thee still the same 'tis this that humbles us with shame. Astonished at thy feet we fall. Thy love exceeds our highest thought.
Henceforth be thou our all in all, thou who our souls with blood has bought. May we henceforth more faithful prove and there forget thy ceaseless love. I hope this very short descriptor of an example in the Old Testament of why the breaking of bread is so important will impress upon all of our hearts the value of remembering the Lord Jesus Christ. Because after all, he's the one who has invited us to do so.
Father, we thank thee again for the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder how he could love us. Sinners condemned unclean. But he did.
And we thank thee for that love. And we thank thee for the demonstration of that love, Calvary's cross. And we ask thee, Father, indeed, give us a devotion to remembering the Lord Jesus Christ. Help us, indeed, to worship in spirit and in truth.
For as such, the Father seeks. We give thee thanks in his name. Amen.