The Table #1

I. Introduction

Today's sermon is entitled “The Table”. The table is the church, the table is the Brookhaven church. This is the Brookhaven church. When we talk about the table we're talking about our church, and at the table we have a few guests, three different chairs illustrated in the message today.

John 21: 15 Jesus says: “Feed My Lambs”

Then when talking about what they should be fed, Jesus says in John 6: 35: “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.”

So, as a church, we have a few different people who come to church who are part of the church, represented by these three chairs and they are all coming to partake of the bread ‘Jesus Christ’. Jesus Christ is the bread.

Who is Sitting?

Let's first dig into who these who's sitting at these three chairs.

The Mature

At the first chair we have what we refer to as the ‘Mature’. Sitting at this chair are those people who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior, and they are actively growing in their faith.

- They're spending time in the Word of God on a regular basis to pray and Bible study.

- The ‘Fruit of the Spirit’, love, joy, peace, patience, self-control is coming out of their lives. It's evident as the fruit in their life.

- In addition, these people are mentoring other people they're sharing their faith in Christ with others. They are a disciple of Christ that is actively discipling other people for Christ. That's what the Mature is. Brookhaven has people that are sitting at this chair.

His purpose, as 3:18 makes clear, is to encourage his readers to become mature in their understanding and practice of the grace of God in Christ.

D. A. Carson; Douglas J. Moo

The New Christians

At this chair, we also have those that we would consider New Christians. These are the individuals who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior. They've been baptized, and they've made their faith in Jesus Christ public through the act of baptism and they're beginning to grow in their faith. Now, maybe they don't understand everything. They don't fully get it all. They don't maybe not fully reconcile what God's plan for their life is and they're growing in faith and growing in understanding. They're not quite here yet (Mature) but they've accepted Christ and they're actively growing and figuring out what their gifts are. They're figuring out how their faith applies where they work and where they live, at school etcetera. But they're growing in their faith.

The Seekers

The last chair we have is the chair we'll call for the Seekers.These are those people who have not accepted Jesus Christ as their savior and they're trying to figure out what God's place is in their life. Maybe they're coming and attending church, but they haven't yet made the decision as the second chair to fully surrender their life to Christ. They've not yet been baptized. They did not fully surrender themselves to Christ. They're coming in, they're checking it out, they're trying to figure out what the Bible has to mean for their life, what place does this have in their life and how does it fit in their family, where they work, where they go to school, where they live, what is God doing, what does the plan of salvation really mean, how does it affect their life now and in the future. They're figuring this stuff out so they're coming to church now.

Now, if we're going to be absolutely honest, I would tell you that I know that there are some people in other churches (not here) that feel like, that table should only have these two chairs (the Mature and the New Christians). But this is not something that happen here at Brookhaven church. It happens in other churches, not here.

In some places, the people believe that the table is for these two chairs, those that have accepted Christ and those that are mature in Christ. Church is about those people who have given their lives to Christ. How can somebody truly worship God unless they've given their hearts to Him. Therefore, we should not do anything, the worship service, the programs, the ministries, etcetera designed for these people because they've not accepted Christ.

In fact, you've probably, as I've been illustrating this, trying to figure out which chair you sit in, some of you are sitting in this chair. Maybe you've been coming on a regular basis. Maybe you've been coming to Brookhaven church because your wife or your parents have been dragging you here and you're listening to what's going on worshipping. Maybe coming to Sabbath school or coming to some other programs or ministries that you're trying to figure out, is this something that I really want to do?

The Difference between the Mature and the New Christian

The difference between this person (Mature) and this person (New Christian) is, the Mature can feed themselves. These people have learned how to study God's work for themselves and can feed themselves through the Scriptures, through prayer all week long.

The attitude of the Mature is when they come to church, it is a place for them to serve. This person comes to church not with the idea and looking for a blessing but how can they be a blessing. When this person gets in the car, and they pray before they come to church they don't say ‘Lord please bless me and my family at church today’. They are praying, ‘Lord use me to be a blessing to others’. This person here doesn't look at the church as something to serve them, this person here sitting at this chair looks at church as an opportunity to serve others.

So, some of you might feel that you're here and for some you're thinking you know what pastor, I am sitting here (Seekers) and it's time that I move to the second chair and it's time for me to be baptized, to make my faith in Christ public and fully surrender myself to Him. Some of you have done that you're saying you know what, I need to really figure out this personal devotions in this time with Christ and to grow in my faith and be actively involved in church and using my gifts and move on to here.

Some of you that are here (New Christian) you're ready to say you know what, I want God to use me to bring other people to the table to mentor and disciple other people in Jesus Christ.

Context based on John 6

Now that we understand the table, let's dig a little deeper. Open your Bible in John 6. I'll give you a little back story. When the children of Israel were leaving Egypt, God had done miracles to get them out of Egypt. As they were making their way to the promised land, they were stuck between the Red Sea and the Egyptian army. The Egyptian were about to kill them, and God did miracles by bringing fire down to separate them. Parting the water so they could walk through on dry ground. When they got to the other side, they were thirsty, had nothing to drink and God miraculously provided water out of a rock.

And then, they got hungry, so God provided manna, bread from heaven and God did a miracle every single day by providing manna for 40 years, a miracle every day even on the 7th day.

Now, Jesus Christ comes along and He's preaching on the Riverside. He's been preaching all day long people been getting tired they're starting to get hungry, but they don't want to stop here in Jesus preach as long as He's going to keep preaching, they're going to keep listening. And Jesus attitude as long as they want to keep listening, I'm going to keep preaching.

Finally, it's about to get dark and the disciples come over to Jesus say, you know what, you should let the people go home they're hungry they haven't eaten all day long. Jesus turns to his disciples and says: ‘you feed them’. They say: ‘we don't have anything to eat how can we feed them?’ He says: ‘you give them something to eat’. We don't have anything. What do you have? Well, here's this boy with 5 loaves and two fish. Jesus takes those five loaves and two fish He prays over them, and Jesus does a miracle. He feeds thousands of people from this very small lunch, this boy's lunch.

When that happens, the religious leaders and some of the people who are a little more acquainted with the Bible, their minds open up and they say: wait a minute. God provided manna ‘bread’ from heaven to the children of Israel and here Jesus is providing bread miraculously maybe there's a connection. So, when Jesus is finished He gets in the boat and He goes to the other side. The next day, the thousands of people are gathered there again and they're asking Jesus please provide another miracle.

That's where we picked the story up in John 6: 26.

“Jesus answered them and said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. 27 Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.”

28 Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?”

29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”

30 Therefore they said to Him, “What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”

32 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

34 Then they said to Him, “Lord, give us this bread always.”

35 And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. 36 But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe.”

Jesus Christ here is preaching to them. He did this miracle right multiplied this bread after He's multiplied the bread, that people are sitting there and they got their tummies full they're content they've just finished their ‘Hebrew happy meals’, they're good to go. Jesus leaves and they go chasing out after Jesus again why do they want to go after Jesus? Because they want another free meal, I mean, just pray and there it is so they want another one. Jesus says listen: you're just looking for signs and I'm telling; you need the bread of heaven they're thinking that's right just like in the wilderness there was a sign of the children of Israel in after Egypt when they were in the wilderness and God did this miracle.

So, you do this miracle. He said: listen, you're looking for physical bread and I'm telling you need the ‘Bread from Heaven’. They said: well, give us this bread. And Jesus says to them: I am the ‘Bread from Heaven’, but you have your minds closed thinking it's about physical bread. It's not about physical bread, it's about me Jesus says.

Jump over to verse 47, John chapter 6:47-51 Jesus said: ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life’. I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and are dead. 50 This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.”.

What is Jesus saying if you want to have eternal life then you must partake of Jesus Christ the bread of life. Jesus Christ died for our sins, and He is the Savior of the world. If we want to have eternity, if we want to grow in our faith, if we want to be in heaven, if we want to have eternal life it happens through Jesus.

Family, let me be clear. The purpose of the table is to share the bread with everyone. The purpose of the table is to share the bread with everyone. The purpose of the church is to share Jesus with everyone. Those that are mature, those that have just accepted Christ and those who have not yet done.

So, the purpose of the church is to share the gospel, the good news with as many people as will hear it. They will only be able to pass from eternal death to eternal life with the bread of life Jesus Christ, the bread that came down out of heaven.

Jesus is the answer, so we must share Jesus with everyone. What we're talking about today is discipleship, it's about people growing in their faith, it's about those who have not yet even come to the table and our table being ready for them to come. It's about those who have come to the table and are still figuring it out, about those who have accepted Jesus Christ and are new in the table and about those that have been in the table for a while and are making things easier for others and inviting other people to join them at the table.

The purpose of the church is to disciple people in Jesus Christ. That is why we exist.