Love Feasts

just a moment. And in Judees 12 and 13, the Bible says, "These are spots in your feast of charity. When they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear, clouds that are without water, carried about of winds, trees whose fruit witherth without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots, raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame, wandering stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. I want you to notice at the beginning of the verse, it says that it says these were spots in your feast of charity. And uh that phrase literally means love feast. And back in the Bible times, they would when they would do the Lord's supper, they would often gather together as a larger group.

Remember, they didn't have buildings like we do today. And so, they would meet in small groups throughout the uh city and throughout the community. And then, um when they had omething special like the Lord's Supper, they would often gather at a park by a river or somewhere else like that. And they would have basically what we're going to have tomorrow at the picnic if it's not raining. They would have a potluck meal and they would have a love feast and at that love feast they would also celebrate the Lord's supper and u what had happened is many of these love feasts became instead of celebrating the lord they became about the people uh they became divisive and that one group was having steak

another group was having hot dogs uh there was a lot of divisions going on and things and that's what was being rebuked here in this passage and and I want to talk about I want to take and talk about that the word love is the word agape in Matthew chap 22 if you want to turn over there Matthew chap 22 and:es 34-39 agape love is the giving love of God and Matthew 22:34 the Bible says but when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees into silence they were gathered together then one of them which was a lawyer asked him a question tempting him and saying master which is the great commandment in the law Jesus Jesus said unto him, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind."

This is the first and great commandment, and the second is like unto it, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. And when you come together for the Lord's supper, it should be a love feast. We are celebrating the the love of God. Uh God loved us. Uh what a great verse, John 3:16. I appreciate you quoting that. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. God commendeth his love towards us. While we're yet sinners, Christ died for us. We love God because he first loved us. That's what it tells us in 1 John chapter 4 and verse number 19.

And so when we come together for the Lord's supper, it it is a love feast because we're celebrating the love of God. We're doing this in remembrance of him. In Luke 22 and 19 and 20 it says, "And he took bread and gave thanks and broke it and gave unto them saying, "This is my body which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me." Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new testament in my blood which is shed for you." The reason that we're here today is to remember the broken body of Christ. To remember the shed blood that he shed upon the cross to save us from our sins.

to remember that God loved us and gave his son for us. But you know that's something that's so easy to forget. In Revelation 2 and:es 4 and 5, he says, "Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen. Repent and do the first works or else I will come unto thee quickly and remove the candlestick out of his place except thou repent." And I want to challenge you to come to the Lord's supper tonight to take a moment and remember that first love to remember why we are here. Remember it's because of his sacrifice because of what he did on the cross because he loved us that we can celebrate together this great sacrifice.

You know he says the first command is to love him. The second is love others as yourself. But if we love God, the Bible says in John 14:15, "If you love me, keep my commandments." In 1 John 5 and:3, it says, "For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievious." You know, to come and celebrate his love, but not keep his commandments. There's something wrong with that. We're here together because we love God. And if we truly love God, we're going to be keep his commandments. We're going to obey the Lord. And not only we're going to love God, but we're also going to love others.

In John 13 34 and 35, it says, "A new commandment I give unto you that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have love one towards another." And see, this love feast is about celebrating our love for God. And it's also about celebrating our love for one another as well. We love him because he loved us. And we can love others because of his love as well. Go over to 1 John chapter 4. 1 John chapter 4 and look at verses 14- 21. We're studying on Sunday morning the symphony of love. And we're talking about what it truly means to love.

But you, you and I, and ourselves, we're like that sponge with no water. No matter how hard you squeeze it, nothing's going to come out. But when you fill that sponge with the water, you squeeze it and it just flows with water. And when you're filled with the love of God, you have more than enough love to give others as well. In 1 John chapter chapter 4 and beginning with verse number 14, it says, "We have seen and do testify that the father sent the son to be the savior of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the son of God. God dwell in him and he in God. And we have known and believe the love that God hath to us, God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him.

Here is our love made perfect that we may be at boldness in the day of judgment because as he is so are we in this world. There's no fear in love but perfect love cast out fear because fear hath torment. He that fearth is not made perfect in love. We love him because he first loved us. If a man say I love God and hate his brother, he's a liar. For he that loveth not his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he had not seen? And this commandment have we from him that he who loveth God love his brother also. And this was one of the problems was happening there and Jude was writing about and Paul wrote about in 1 Corinthians chap 11 as well is is they were not coming together remember the love of God.

They weren't coming together in love for one another and and we ought to love God because he first loved us and because he loved us we have so much love to give to one another as well. In 1 Thessalonians 4:es 9 and 10, it says, "But as touching, brethren, love, you need not that I write unto you, for yourselves are taught of God to love one another, and indeed you do it toward all the brethren which in all Macedonia, but we beseech you, brethren, that you increase more and more." 1 Thessalonians 3:12, "And the Lord make you increase and bound in love one towards another, and towards all men, even as you as we do towards you."

And I want to remind you, this church is known for its love. You hear it often in testimonies. But folks, we can do better. We can do more. There's more of God's love for us to give to one another as well. And and let's not forget that we come together to celebrate his love. And we come together to celebrate the love that we have as an ohan as a family together as well. They would call it a an agape feast in Acts chapter 2. They gathered together daily and broke bread and they fellowship together and they they had baptisms and they had the Lord's supper. uh they would gather together to feast and celebrate.

In Nehemiah chapter 8, they had uh they were rebuilding the temple and they found the book of the law that had been lost for many years. And when they opened it and read it, everybody just started weeping and crying. And Nehemiah stood up and said, "Wait a minute. This is not a time for weeping and crying. This is a time to celebrate. We can celebrate the the word of God. We can celebrate the love of God. And we need to remember that that God has called us to celebrate his love one with another. Uh go over to 1 Corinthians chapter 3. 1 Corinthians chapter 3 and look at verses 20 and 21. 1 Corinthians 3 20 and 21.

Um 1 Corinthians 3. And I've got the wrong verses written down. I wrote down the wrong reference. But but we want to remember the abundant love of God and and that his love is more abundant in all ways. Maybe that's 2 Corinthians chapter 3. Let me take a look here real quick. What is it? Not the right reference. I've got the reference totally wrong. I don't I got the wrong but but listen what God wants us to understand is this. You know when when you go and look at the table of food they had on on Valentine's Day, we had all that food in front of us. We celebrated that. And we're coming together to celebrate God's abundant grace, God's abundant goodness, more than you and I can even imagine that God has given to us.

And God has called us to come to his table tonight in Psalms 23:es 5 and 6. Thou preparest a table for me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anoint my head with oil. My cup runth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. God prepares a table for me. And God has called us tonight to come to his table to celebrate his love for us, to remember what he did upon the cross and and to feast and celebrate the the blessings that we have together as well. In Psalms 34:8, it says, "Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.

Blessed is the man that trusteth in him." And I want us to come together and just remember the goodness of God tonight. Go back to Jude chapter 1 and look at verse number 12. He said, "These are the spots in your feast of charity." Let me ask you a question. What's your spot tonight? Don't be a spot like a big dirt spot right in the middle. Make sure that you're right with the Lord. That where you ought to be. In 2 Peter 3:14, "Wherefore, beloved, seeing that you look for such things, be diligent that you may be found in peace without spot and blameless." I want to close with 1 Corinthians 11. 1 Corinthians 11:es 27-31, Paul gives us the instruction for the Lord's supper.

He says, "Wherefore, whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body, the blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that drink either drinkketh unworthily eateth and drinkketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we judge ourselves, we should not be judged. When you come to God's table, it's a time to celebrate and to remember what he has done. Now, the Lord's table is for those that are saved.

You can't celebrate an anniversary if you've not been married. Uh, and if you can't celebrate God's salvation, if you haven't trust him, you heard some great testimonies tonight about trusting Christ as your savior. If you're not saved, that's where it has to start at. We also believe that you should be baptized after your salvation. That that the pattern in Acts chapter 2, they were saved. They were baptized and they're added to the church and then they took the Lord's supper. We believe that that's the next step of obedience. But if you're here tonight, you're saved and you're baptized and and and and then you should come to his table with hands that are clean to judge yourselves.

You know, when my wife calls me to dinner, she expects me to look and see, I better wash my hands first. When you come to God's table, you need to come without spots. You need to come with clean hands to celebrate before him. But we also come together to celebrate what he has done for us. And so as we partake of this agape feast tonight, now afterwards we'll have some pizza and some ponet that the gamater's abroad enjoy some fellowship together. But as we celebrate the Lord's supper, the agape feast, I want to celebrate his love for us. So let's bow for prayer for just a moment and take a moment to examine your heart.

Is there a spot there that needs to be cleaned? Is there a spot there that needs to be taken care of before you come to his table? Before you partake tonight, just take a moment to examine your life. If you're not saved, you need to trust Christ as your savior. And we would glad to talk to you about that. But if you are saved, take a moment to talk to the Lord how much you love him and ask him to show you if there's any spots there.