Come to the Table
Lord's Supper • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Some of you
Today, we are going to talk about banquets and feasts, so I thought it might be appropriate to tell you about the first banquet I can recall attending.
I must have been nine or 10, and my father was active on the board of directors with the Associated General Contractors of Virginia, and that organization held its annual conference at the Homestead Resort in Hot Springs, Va.
Now, if you’ve been to the Homestead and eaten dinner in their grand ballroom, you’ll have an idea of just how fancy this event would have been. For those who haven’t been there, let me give you a picture.
All of the men were wearing their best suits — and I think some may have even worn tuxedos. The women were dressed elegantly and with their best jewelry on display. Even the kids were expected to be in suits and ties and pretty dresses.
Each table was set with the resort’s finest silver and crystal, and the service was impeccable. In fact, the Homestead has long been known for its world-class service. There is a white-jacketed maitre d’, and there are white-gloved waiters in charge of water and waiters in charge of bread and waiters in charge of butter and waiters in charge of cutlery and waiters in charge of plates, and then there are headwaiters in charge of the waiters, and every change of course is handled with the precision of a military drill team.
Mom had spent long hours with me back in Portsmouth going over all the special rules of etiquette that I would have to know, explaining which fork to use for which course and which knife to use to cut meat and which spoon to use to stir my tea — probably she just said, “Don’t do it, or you might spill it.”
And by the night of the banquet, we had enjoyed several meals at the Homestead already, so I am sure that I must have pretty much felt at ease by then.
Now you should know by now that I’m a big fan of food, and I was never shy as an only child about ordering the most expensive thing on the menu when my parents took me out to eat.
Annette will tell you that I still have a habit of doing that. What can I say? I like good food, and I like to be adventurous about what I’m eating.
So the night of the banquet, we were sitting with a group of my father’s colleagues at one of those big, round banquet tables, and I was enjoying the best steak I had ever eaten in my short life, taking my time and savoring every bite, while basking in all the compliments about how well-behaved I was and how proud my parents must have been of me.
At some point, I put my knife and fork down on my plate and turned to say something to Mom. As I spoke to her, I saw from the corner of my eye a quick movement at my place setting and I turned back just in time to see the coattails of the waiter who had just vanished with my plate of half-finished steak.
Some of you have probably figured out what happened. For those who didn’t read Emily Post this morning, let me fill you in on the etiquette.
When you’re finished eating, you are to leave your knife and fork on your plate as a signal to the waiter to remove it from your place setting. If you are merely stopping for a moment, intending to continue eating your delicious steak, you are supposed to simply prop the silverware on your plate.
The lesson I learned that day was to always keep your fork ready to jab the person who tries to take your plate before you’re through. That may be why I haven’t returned to the Homestead in decades.
Most of us have probably attended a banquet or two in our time, even if they’ve not been quite as elegant as the one I just described. Weddings, awards ceremonies and the like come to mind. In fact, banquets are nearly always celebratory in nature — or they are held to honor someone significant.
And one of the themes that is woven throughout the Old and the New testaments is the coming of the Messianic banquet. Indeed, the Messianic banquet is pictured in the very observance of the Lord’s Supper, and so today is a good time for us to explore its significance to the church.
All the way back in Genesis, we see a picture of this banquet — when Abraham prepared a feast for the Lord and the two angels who would later go on to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. And in this scene, we pick up on the first of three ways in which banqueting is significant in Scripture.
1
1 Now the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, while he was sitting at the tent door in the heat of the day.
2 When he lifted up his eyes and looked, behold, three men were standing opposite him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth,
Gen 18:3-4
3 and said, “My Lord, if now I have found favor in Your sight, please do not pass Your servant by. 4 “Please let a little water be brought and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree;
5 and I will bring a piece of bread, that you may refresh yourselves; after that you may go on, since you have visited your servant.” And they said, “So do, as you have said.”
READ Gen 18:1-5
Biblical scholars believe that this was an appearance of the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ to Abraham, and Moses, who wrote this book under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, used God’s covenant name in his description of the event.
1 Now the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, while he was sitting at the tent door in the heat of the day.
Note that the first appearance of the word “Lord” here is in small capital letters. That means that God’s name Yahweh or Jehovah appears in the original text. Moses, who wrote this book under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, certainly understood what had happened, but when you look at Abraham’s
So whether it was Jesus or the Father appearing in the flesh of a man, what became clear to Abraham very quickly was that he was in the presence of the Lord Most High, and he wanted to honor that visit with a banquet.
Abraham says here that he will bring a piece of bread to share with his guests, but he actually laid out a spread of bread cakes, curds, milk and a tender calf before the men.
And after having eaten the banquet under one of the oaks of Mamre, the Lord looked at Abraham and made him a promise:
10 He said, “I will surely return to you at this time next year; and behold, Sarah your wife will have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door, which was behind him.
This banquet would be a significant event in the lives of 99-year-old Abraham and 90-year-old Sarah. It was a sign of the spiritual blessing that God had pronounced for them, a blessing that would be given a physical manifestation in the birth a year later of their son, Isaac.
The first significant thing about banqueting in Scripture is that it’s a sign of spiritual blessing.
We read the 23rd Psalm in our responsive reading this morning, and you’ll recall that one of the lines from that Psalm is “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.”
Now, think about this for a moment. How safe does it seem to have a banquet in the midst of your enemies? How peaceful would that supper be? Taken out of the context of this Psalm, this line sounds more like a curse than a blessing.
But we know that the context of this Psalm is one of blessing. We read or recite this Psalm when we want to remember how much the Lord has done for us or when we want to run to God for comfort.
The idea of having God prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies is only comforting if I am sure that God will also protect me from those enemies. And that’s exactly what David knew. God had poured out His blessings on David, and the banqueting table of this Psalm was a sign of those blessings.
The prophet Joel had stern words from God for the people of Judah, and he warned them of destroying armies that would be so numerous as to seem like locusts.
But God also gave Judah encouragement through this prophet, a promise that Israel would one day be delivered and its enemies defeated.
And that time of blessing would be marked by feasting.
Joel 2:24
24 The threshing floors will be full of grain, And the vats will overflow with the new wine and oil.
25 “Then I will make up to you for the years That the swarming locust has eaten, The creeping locust, the stripping locust and the gnawing locust, My great army which I sent among you.
26 “You will have plenty to eat and be satisfied And praise the name of the Lord your God, Who has dealt wondrously with you; Then My people will never be put to shame.
Banqueting is a sign of spiritual blessing.
Banqueting is also a sign of spiritual satisfaction.
To see how this is true, we’ll look to the prophet Ezekiel, who prophesied to the people of Judah who had been taken away into exile in Babylon.
Ezekiel’s prophetic purpose was to make the exiles understand that their collective and individual sin had led to God’s discipline.
But God also used this prophet to give them hope for a time when they would be redeemed and for a time yet to come when God’s glory will once again fill a new temple in Jerusalem.
In terms reminiscent of the ones David had used in the 23rd Psalm, Ezekiel gives the people God’s word about the time of their redemption:
Eze
12 “As a shepherd cares for his herd in the day when he is among his scattered sheep, so I will care for My sheep and will deliver them from all the places to which they were scattered on a cloudy and gloomy day.
13 “I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries and bring them to their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the streams, and in all the inhabited places of the land.
15 “I will feed My flock and I will lead them to rest,” declares the Lord God.
When the people of Israel are fed by the Good Shepherd, they will be satisfied, and they will have rest.
But this isn’t simply talking about full bellies.
To see a fuller picture of what God is promising here, turn with me to our focus passage today — .
READ
Now, look back at that first verse.
1 “Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk Without money and without cost.
How can one buy wine and milk without money?
For those of you who were here when we studied the seven letters of Christ to the churches in Asia, you may recall something similar having been written to the people of the church at Laodicea.
Remember that they thought they were wealthy and that they had need of nothing. But Jesus said to them through the Apostle John that they were “wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked” () in their spiritual state.
And then He gave them advice:
18 I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.
Jesus had paid the price for their salvation. What they needed to do was to accept the gift of grace and recognize that neither their worldly possessions nor their religious rituals would not earn them a place in heaven.
We are saved by grace, through faith, and that not of ourselves — it is the gift of God.
This grace is what the prophet Isaiah is describing in Chapter 55.
But much like the church of Laodicea would do so many years later, the exiles of Judah were still relying on empty religious ritual, hoping for spiritual satisfaction and finding it nowhere to be had.
Is
2 “Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And delight yourself in abundance.
God was offering His people a chance for true satisfaction, a chance for — as the Psalmist puts it — thirsty souls to be satisfied and hungry souls to be “filled with what is good” (). All they would have to do would be to follow Him in faith, just as Abraham had done, just as David had done.
This is the same thing God offers us today. Follow His Son, Jesus Christ in faith — admit that you are a sinner, believe that Jesus died to pay the penalty for your sins and confess that He is your Savior and Lord — and your hungry soul will be filled with what is good.
And just as Abraham dined with the Lord, Jesus promises that those who follow Him in faith will do so as well:
20 ‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.
And that leads us to the third significant point about banqueting in Scripture.
It is a sign of fellowship with God.
Through His son, Jesus Christ, God has made an everlasting covenant — the new covenant in Christ’s blood — to save we who are lost in our sins if we will only accept the gift of grace that Jesus offered on the cross.
Part of that covenant is the promise that those who have been saved — those who represent the true church, the bride of Christ, who is the Lamb of God — will be on the guest list for the wedding banquet in Heaven.
The Apostle John wrote about this in the book of Revelation:
7 “Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.”
8 It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
9 Then he said to me, “Write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’ ” And he said to me, “These are true words of God.”
This invitation was extended first to the Jews, God’s chosen people. And many of them accepted the invitation, choosing to put their faith in a Messiah whose salvation would come through His death on a cross.
But as a nation, Israel rejected that invitation, and so the doors have been opened to all the nations.
Jesus has called to Himself nations that did not know God. He became a witness to all peoples. And all peoples can experience the blessing of spiritual satisfaction and fellowship with God, who glorified His Son, Jesus Christ, the Holy One of Israel.
What we do here today as we eat a morsel of bread and drink a sip of grape juice reminds us of the spiritual blessing we have received. It will not satisfy our physical hunger or thirst, but it reminds us that Jesus Christ is our only possible source of spiritual satisfaction. And it renews and recommits us to our fellowship with God in Christ Jesus, through the Holy Spirit.
As we prepare to partake of the elements of the Lord’s Supper, we can remember the great promise of one of the elders standing by the throne of God when John was taken into heaven for his Revelation:
16 “They will hunger no longer, nor thirst anymore; nor will the sun beat down on them, nor any heat;
17 for the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to springs of the water of life; and God will wipe every tear from their eyes.”
Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd of David’s 23rd Psalm, the Good Shepherd of Ezekiel’s vision, the leader and commander for the peoples in Isaiah’s prophecy — He will be our sustenance.
Indeed, He is even now.
Now, as we prepare to distribute the bread for today’s communion observance, please remain seated and take the bulletin insert and join in singing “What the Lord Has Done in Me.” When we have finished, the deacons will join me at the front and distribute the bread, and then one of them will come up here for prayer and a Scripture reading. Then we will all join together in eating the bread that represents the body of Christ, torn for our transgressions.
SONG/BREAD
When God was teaching His people, Israel, about Himself and about how they were to come before His perfect holiness, He called on the priests of Israel to purify themselves, the people, and the things used in the tabernacle with the blood of lambs and bulls.
Even as far back as the Exodus, God was teaching us that, as the writer of Hebrews puts it, “without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.”
But the blood that Jesus shed on the cross did not just COVER our sins the way that the blood of sheep and bulls did. Christ’s blood washes our sin clean. The people of the Exodus were sprinkled with blood to cover their sins; we are washed in the blood of Jesus to make us white as snow.
Now, as we prepare to distribute the juice that represents Christ’s blood, shed for our sins, remain seated, and we will sing “Man of Sorrows.” The lyrics are on your bulletin insert. When we’re done, prayerfully ask God to reveal to you any unconfessed sin as the deacons distribute the cups. One will then join me on the dais and read a Scripture and pray. Then we will all drink together.
SONG/CUPS
One day in heaven, we will join the banquet to which this Lord’s Supper points. Until then, we partake of these elements each month, proclaiming the Lord’s death until He comes.
Maranatha! Lord, come!
Now, join me down here
Now, join me on the floor here, and let’s join together to sing “Bless’d Be the Tie that Binds.”