The Bread Table

Intro

Do you have a favorite place in your house? For me it is our dinning room table. And it isn’t because because the table itself is that special. it was my great grandparent’s from the 70’s and its barely hanging on. And it’s not because of the food even though we have eaten some great meals on it over the 10 years Alysa and I have been married. The reason I love our table so much is because it is where our family comes together. It is where we spend time together undistracted, and uninterrupted.

This year we started a game that we play at dinner called high, low, buffalo. We go around the table and everyone shares a high from their day, a low from their day, and something random from their day. With a four and a six year old you get some great answers to those questions. But we enjoy our time spent around the table together, and protect that time the best we can because it is valuable to us.

Today in our study of the tabernacle we have gotten to the table. The table of presence or the table of show bread. and by looking at the purpose of it we are going to that God is serious about what He said in Exodus 25:8 the whole reason he gave them these blueprints for the tabernacle the whole reason for all of this is so that he may dwell among his people.

God wants spend time with His people, he wants to eat with them so bad that he built the table. He’s intentional about it. He’s intentional about wanting to have fellowship with you. He built the table, provided the meal, and now he invites you to spend time with him. He want’s to show you how what he has for you at his table is better than anything you can find anywhere else.

Exodus 25:23–30 CSB

“You are to construct a table of acacia wood, thirty-six inches long, eighteen inches wide, and twenty-seven inches high. Overlay it with pure gold and make a gold molding all around it. Make a three-inch frame all around it and make a gold molding for it all around its frame. Make four gold rings for it, and attach the rings to the four corners at its four legs. The rings should be next to the frame as holders for the poles to carry the table. Make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold, and the table can be carried by them. You are also to make its plates and cups, as well as its pitchers and bowls for pouring drink offerings. Make them out of pure gold. Put the Bread of the Presence on the table before me at all times.

When looking at the table and how is built the first thing that we see is we have been invited into

1. A Forever Fellowship

We have the opportunity to have a forever fellowship with God himself. I love our family time around our kitchen table. But as much as we’d like to it is impossible for us to sit around our kitchen table forever.

That is not the case when it comes to the fellowship are able to have with God. This Gold table points towards that. On the table there was always 12 loaves of bread. the loaves would sit there all week and then on the sabath they would switch out the old bread for the new bread and the priests would eat the old bread. They would eat it right there. In the Holy place. God wanted to eat with them. He wanted to fellowship with them.

The 12 loaves represented that God was suffecient for the 12 tribes of Israel. Meaning all of God’s children were represented at the table. No one was excluded, no one was left out. all God’s kids had a spot at the table. If you have acknowledged that Jesus is the only gate to salvation, you have accepted his ultimate sacrifice for you, which has cleansed you forever, then you are now living in the light of Jesus, and you have a seat at the table. Whatever mistakes you have made, no matter how long it’s been since you’ve been home. Your heavenly father has seat at the table for you. You are a part of a forever fellowship.

This table proves it, because around where the 12 loaves that represented God’s sufficiency for all His kids would lay there was a gold crown. that encircled the bread. to keep it from falling off. Even when the table was moved the bread remained in place because the golden crown kept it from falling off.

Our fellowship with God, is not held together by our effort, or our feelings. Our fellowship with God is maintained through the all encompasssing golden deity of Jesus. He maintains the fellowship and because of him we can’t fall out of it. Because I promise you no matter how much you love your family time and want your family to be gathered around the table God wants it more more.

God made a table for you, provided the meal, and then drew a big golden circle around it to say once you are mine you are mine forever and our fellowship is forever.

The table shows us that our fellowship is forever. Lets look closer at the bread itself.

The bread was called the shewbread which literally translated means the bread of the face. Does that mean the bread looked like a face? no that would be creepy. No it meant that it was to always be before God’s face and he looked upon it with satisfaction because it forshadowed his beloved son who always did what pleased him. and Because the 12 loaves also represented all his people.

When God looked at the bread he thought first of Jesus who he was pleased and satisfied with, and then he thought of his people as an extension of Jesus. so even though we could never please God the way Jesus can he still looks at his people and is pleased. and because of the bread of the face the people were symbolically face to face with God. Because of Jesus we are able to become face to face with God.

John 6:32–40 CSB

Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, Moses didn’t give you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” Then they said, “Sir, give us this bread always.” “I am the bread of life,” Jesus told them. “No one who comes to me will ever be hungry, and no one who believes in me will ever be thirsty again. But as I told you, you’ve seen me, and yet you do not believe. Everyone the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. This is the will of him who sent me: that I should lose none of those he has given me but should raise them up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father: that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him will have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

2. The Son Satisfies.

Jesus is the bread of life and everyone who comes to him will never be hungry again. The beautiful thing about Jesus being the of life is he always satisfies. He doesn’t just satisfy our need for salvation he also satisfies God’s wrath towards us.

When God looks at us once we are his children he has to look at Jesus first and when he looks at him, just like he did in the tabernacle he is satisfied.

And then we stop trying to come to the table on our own and instead look to Jesus, we find salvation and full satisfaction in him.

God looks at Jesus and he is satisfied, We look at Jesus and are satisfied, because he has all we need. because the Son satisfies.

Jesus satisfies the requirements for our redemption.

Right before Jesus made the statement he is bread of life. He had just done the miracle of feeding the 5000, he took two pieces of fish and 5 little loaves of barley which was the cheep bread poor people ate, and he multiplied it to satisfy them all.

As awesome as that was all those people got hungry again. and they literally got in boats and followed after Jesus, but it was for the wrong reason John 6:26-27

John 6:26–27 CSB

Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Don’t work for the food that perishes but for the food that lasts for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set his seal of approval on him.”

They were looking for the next cool thing that Jesus could do for them not to come to the table for fellowship with God.

Jesus is offering them something incredible and eternal and what they truly needed and they just want another lunch.

Its like someone offering to buy you a car but you choose one uber ride instead.

We hear that and it seems so dumb and yet how often do we chase the things that we know aren’t going to satisfy meanwhile the bread of life is sitting on the table that will satisfy us forever.

How often do we chase after the blessings of Jesus rather than Jesus himself? The people ate the bread at the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand weren’t chasing after Jesus they were chasing after miracles.

Here’s the reality of us today all the blessing that Jesus chooses to give us are great but they don’t satisfy it is only fellowship with God through Jesus that satisfies.

Miracles don’t satisfy, Jesus does

Financial security doesn’t satisfy, Jesus does.

good health doesn’t satisfy, Jesus does,

relationships don’t satisfy, Jesus does.

sex doesn’t satisfy, Jesus does.

you wont satisfy you, only Jesus does.

We got to stop treating Jesus as means to get lesser things and then ask ourselves why do I feel so empty.

Jesus isn’t the means that we use to get what satisfies. He is the bread of life, he is what satisfies.

3. The Son Sustains.

Not only does he satisfy he is what sustains us. Whats the difference. Being satisfied is about achieving imediate fulillment. In Jesus we find immediate fullfillment.

to sustain something is to keep it in existence, to continue to uphold it over a period of time. He sustains us with the nourishment we need.

So not only does the bread of life provide us imediate fulfillment he also sustains us for the long haul.

I don’t know about you but when I think of bread I don’t think of something that really sustains me. In our house and I would think most houses we treat bread as a side dish. We throw the rolls in the oven as an add on to whatever the main dish is. the other day we were airfrying some lemon pepper chicken, and we already had some potatoes to go with it, and we were planning to throw some cresent rolls in the oven and just forgot. and we didnt really notice until halfway through eating. and mine and Alysa’s reaction was just kind of shoulder shrug.

In Jesus time that interaction would never have happened. bread wasn’t a side dish it was what they relied on to sustain them. The bread that they ate contained all of the nutrients they needed. It wasn’t like the bread we have today. In the early 1900s. bread manufacturers started making changes to our bread so that bread would be made faster and have a longer shelf life. But the compromise is that the bread no longer was going to to contain all the nutrients that gave it, its sustaining power.

and over time bread moved from the main dish to a side dish.

If you are here this morning and your feeling unsatisfied, your are feeling like what your doing now isn’t sustaining you. I got to ask you have you been treating the bread of life like a side dish?

Have you been looking to your walk with Christ as an optional add on to what you think is actually the main course of your life?

Your savior is not a side dish to your life, He is your life.

I’m going to tell you something that you’ve probably never heard before. Jesus does not want to be the number one priority in your life.

We think of our life has a bunch things and they all are of different levels of importance. Theres family, friends, school, work, church, hobbies, all vying for position. and we think well Jesus needs to be number one. Jesus doesn’t want to be number one among a list of everything else.

He is meant to be in a category all off by himself. He isn’t a priority he is the priority. He is the lens through which we see all our other priorities. Instead of listing them out Jesus, then family then, friends, then work,

It is Jesus number one in my family, Jesus number one with my friends, Jesus number one at school, Jesus number at work. He is the main dish because he is the only one with the power to sustain us in every one those areas. In good times in bad. The Son of God sustains us.

Conclusion

My prayer for you this morning is that you would trust the one who saved your life to sustain your life. and stop putting your trust in things that will never satisfy.

All this new bread looks good, tastes good, but what we really need to survive has been taken out of it. If we aren’t careful we can do the same thing with Jesus. We can add things to who he is, take things away from who he is and label it the bread of life. but in the end it wont satisfy.

It is only through belief in the real person of Jesus Christ that we can be brought to the table, into a face to face forever fellowship with God. You can have family dinner with God almighty for all of eternity. You may not have grown up in a family time around the table type of house, and there is pain you are carrying from that. God knows that. and weather you live in a house with a table you feel comfortable at or not.

God has set a table for you. So you can have a forever fellowship him. The God who created you has invited you to sit at his table. Will you accept his invitation?

For the Christian this morning I got ask you. Are you treating Jesus like a side dish? do you truly believe that he is enough to satisfy and sustain you or are using him as an optional add on to your life?

I want to be as clear as I possibly can.

The call to follow Jesus is not a call to add Jesus onto your life. The call to follow Jesus is to make Jesus your life? Is he THE bread of your life, your only source of true satisfaction and substanance, or is he just one of many?

The altar is open this morning for you to make that right this morning to say Jesus I have a treated you as just a part of my life for so long but this morning I come to you as my only source of satisfaction, the only thing that can really sustain me, as the only source of life. because I still believe you are the way, the truth and the life.