DEVOTIONS: The Breaking of Bread

DEVOTIONS: Habits of The Redeemed

This sermon series we have been exploring what are to be the habits of God’s redeemed people. Those things that followers of Christ are to be devoted too.

When you look at the life of one who is devoted to Christ, what should their lives look like? What sort of habits should they cultivate?

Using as a launching pad we have been exploring the scriptures to see what it looks like for a follower of Christ to be holistically devoted to God.

Acts 2:42 ESV

42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

The Apostles Teaching

The word of God is the living word of God

What the Bible says God says

Therefore, the word of God is our highest authority

The Fellowship

Fellowship is not just time with people we like, its not just sharing a meal together, its not just enjoying the same activities...

Fellowship is the union we have with each other as the Body of Christ

Fellowship is the union of the Body which is the church, with the head which is Christ.

And we are to be devoted to this fellowship!

This morning we will be looking at the third devotion

The Breaking of Bread

Now, it makes sense to us that the early Christians, and likewise Christians today, should be devoted to the Apostles Teaching.

Pastors will spends tens of thousands of dollars on a seminary education so they can be well trained and prepared to equip God’s people in the Apostles teaching, the word of God.

We can spend a lot of money and a lot of time reading and studying, and watching and listening to pastors and theologians teach us the word of God.

It makes sense that if we are to be devoted to God, we would be devoted to the apostles teaching.

In the same way, it makes sense to be Devoted to the Fellowship

It is only through the fellowship of Christ and his church that we are able to be spiritually healthy, it is only through Christ and his church that we are able to live as God as called us to live.

We must be devoted to the fellowship. For we cannot be devoted to Christ if we are not devoted to the fellowship, his body, and his bride.

So its easy to understand that we are to be devoted to the apostles teaching and the fellowship - But what does it mean to be devoted to the Breaking of Bread?

Breaking Bread = Eating? (Don’t read that)

What is Luke talking about when he says in acts 2:42 that they were devoted to he breaking of bread?

Breaking Bread = Eating? (Don’t read )

Now certainly everyone, whether they are followers of Christ or not, is devoted to breaking bread if the breaking of bread is speaking of nothing more than eating.

If Breaking Bread is referring to eating common meals, than everyone who is alive has proven their devotion. For if they were not devoted to eating they would not be alive.

There are two major views as to what Luke is talking about when he said they devoted themselves to the breaking of bread.

Eating Common Meals Together

Eucharistic meal, The Lords Supper, Communion.

Eating Common Meals Together

This is a popular view among many who take this phrase to mean that the early Christians devoted themselves to hospitality, and sharing meals with one another.

They they were devoted to table fellowship with one another.

We see this made clear just a couple verses down

Acts 2:46 ESV

46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts,

This is a perfect example of when breaking bread is speaking of eating a meal together.

However, this idea of eating together is more of category of the Fellowship we are to have with one another.

And this is a very important category,

for us to be devoted to the fellowship requires that we spend time together and we eat together.

However the devotion spoken of in is not referring to the disciples eating meals in each other homes, this devotion is referring to the sacramental meal of the Lords Table.

The Breaking of Bread they devoted themselves too was

The meal of all meals

The greatest meal ever to be eaten

It is the meal we were created to eat.

This is the meal Jesus lived and died to serve us.

This is the meal we eat with Christ himself.

The early Christians devoted themselves to the breaking of bread, to the gathering together and partaking in the communion meal together.

The disciples and the early church devoted themselves to the Lords Supper because they knew and believed in the power of the supper.

They knew Jesus’ was present with them in a unique and special way in the supper

They knew knew that it was through the supper that they participate with the blood and body of Christ.

They knew that the communion meal was a gift from God, and contained unique blessing.

1 cor

1 Corinthians 10:15 ESV

15 I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say.

Paul talks about this in 1 Cor 10

1 Corinthians 10:16 ESV

16 The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?

So the cup and the bread are both participation in Christ.

You know what this word for participation is?

Its the word we looked at last week, κοινωνία, Fellowship.

We have κοινωνία with Christ when we partake in the cup and the bread.

κοινωνία fellowship is not thin, etherial relationship, but rather its a real tangible fellowship, its formative, its powerful.

Its not just thinking thoughts about someone.

Communion is when we partake in the bread and the cup and are joined to God in a celebration of who he is and what He he has done.

Acts 42

Its sticky, its a bonding of two people.

Communion is not a time to be introspective about sin, its not confession, its not about you and your sin, its about you and your Savior,

and not only about you and your savior, but about the whole bride of Christ and her groom.

Communion is when we partake in the bread and the cup and are joined to God in a celebration of who he is and what He has done in Chriast.

Acts 2:42 ESV

42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

When we take communion each and every week we are, in a unique way being joined together, fellowshipping with, and participating in the very life of God.

And this life, this communion, κοινωνία, is what God has created us for!

This is what he created Adam and Eve to enjoy with him in the garden - fellowship, union, worship, and communion.

And this is the picture we see at the end of Revelation with the marriage supper of the lamb. God’s people in perfect fellowship, union, worship, and communion with God.

And what this looks like is all creation being brought into fellowship, κοινωνία, with King Jesus.

And when we look at this covenantal bond we experience at communion, we see that throughout the scripture food is at the center of mans fellowship or participation with God.

And this will be memorialized by the marriage supper of the lamb, the full feast of the bread and the cup which we partake in each week.

as we look at the pages of the bible we will see that food is one of the greatest themes from Genesis to Revelation.

Feasting in the Bible

One of the greatest themes in the Bible is food.

Tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil

We then see the tree of life and the marriage supper of the lamb as food we look forward to eating.

In Genesis we see that God created man a hungry being

In both and the creation of man and women are immediately followed by God inviting them to eat of the food from the garden.

Scripture tells us that there were many trees with food good for Adam and Eve to eat.

At the center of the garden were two sacramental trees, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

It was at the Tree of Life that God and his creation would enjoy κοινωνία. Adam and Eve would fellowship with God around food.

And likewise, we see that food is involved When the serpent tempted Adam and Eve. He invited them to eat of the tree God told them not to eat.

And when they took a bite, it says their eyes were open, they saw their nakedness and they hid from God. The κοινωνία, the fellowship they once had, is gone.

You see, the whole creation narrative is full of food, the story of Adam and Eve and the fall is surrounded with themes of food.

Even the curse speaks of food

Genesis 3:17 ESV

17 And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;

So how would would man have fellowship with God now that sin has entered the world? Well, it wouldn’t be by true κοινωνία (Fellowship) like they had in the garden, but instead their fellowship, their worship, would be through offerings, through bloodshed, through regulations.

And as we continue the story of the bible, through a complex history of how God would fellowship with his people, there is one consent: we see food being present each step of the way.

and invited him to eat “every seed-bearing plant ... and every tree that has fruit with seed in it”

Though sin restricted the fellowship they had in the garden, God still provided a way for his people to come close and eat together.

From the beginning to the end of the Bible, through a complex history of liturgical change, there is one constant: The people of God always worship at the table.

Food in the OT

The sacrifices of Abel, Noah, and Abraham were food rituals, sacred barbecues.

Able offered a food offering to God that was acceptable

The sacrifices of Abel, Noah, and Abraham were food rituals, sacred barbecues.

Noah, when he and his family come off the ark, he sets up an alter to offer a food sacrifice to God, a meal that he would eat with God in the new creation

Abraham went around setting up alters, and these alters were tables where he would cook up a sacrifice and dine with the divine YHWH

An ancient Hebrew worshipper offered an animal, with flour or cakes, on an altar.

These cakes were bread that were spiced and then baked or cooked in a griddle, he then would offer God part of the bread and he would eat part.

In the Hebrew Bible, sacrificial fire “consumes” good on the alter, and the word for consume is (akal, “eat”; ),

God wanted his people to know that he was eating and enjoying the food prepared for him.

Leviticus calls the offerings of the tabernacle “bread of God” (, ),

Ezekiel says that the altar in the temple is Yahweh’s table ().

The “peace offering” was a shared meal: Fat was burned as the Lord’s food, while the rest of the animal was divided between worshipper and priest.

The whole point of building a sanctuary was to have a place where Israel could “eat, drink, and rejoice” with and before Yahweh (; ).

after explaining to the sacrifices Moses says,

Many of the prophecies of the OT that look forward to the coming Messiah and the new creation have food at the center of God’s communion with his people.

Deuteronomy 12:18 ESV

18 but you shall eat them before the Lord your God in the place that the Lord your God will choose, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your towns. And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God in all that you undertake.

Isaiah 25:6 ESV

6 On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.

Isa 25

So seeing food as such a prominent description of God joining himself to his people throughout the OT, it should be no surprise to us that when Jesus comes he comes eating and drinking.

When Jesus comes he comes eating and drinking

In fact, it was Jesus eating and drinking that so often got him in trouble with the religious folk of the day.

Luke 5:29–30 ESV

29 And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. 30 And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”

Food and eating and drinking is major theme throughout Jesus’ ministry.

Jesus offends his followers when he suggests they need to eat his flesh and drink his blood

Jesus uses the table as object lessons for his disciples

He uses food as parables about the kingdom of God

His first miracles was turning water to wine

He feeds the multitudes

He even says that he is the bread of life. And that anyone who comes to him will hunger no more.

John 6:35 ESV

35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

His last night with his disciples was a feast

And when he met the disciples on the beach after the resurrection, what does do? He eats breakfast with them.

As I mentioned earlier, God created man hungry, and Christ is that which is able to fill that which man is hungry for.

I was talking to my kids Friday night when they all said they were soooooo hungry.

I asked them, what does our hunger symbolize?

And they had some good answers, but we concluded the conversation about how our hunger should remind us of our need for Jesus, for he is the bread of life, and whoever comes to him will no longer hunger.

So every time we are hungry we should be reminded that God created us hungry, and Jesus is the only one who can satisfy that hunger.

Food is an everyday symbol of our need for Christ. There is a reason we are to hunger and thirst after righteousness, and in Christ we find fulfillment.

There are many dimensions to the theology of food in Scripture.

Matthew 5:21 ESV

21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’

There is another way our need for food symbolizes our need for Jesus.

Hunger = Dependence

First, food means dependence. We are eating creatures, who cannot live unless we take in something from outside of us. Ultimately, we are dependent upon God. The food we eat is dead, and only God can cause it to become life to us.

Again, God created us hungry, he created us needing to eat.

There are many dimensions to the theology of food in Scripture. First, food means dependence. We are eating creatures, who cannot live unless we take in something from outside of us. Ultimately, we are dependent upon God. The food we eat is dead, and only God can cause it to become life to us.

Again, God created us hungry, he created us needing to eat.

We are eating creatures, who cannot live unless we take in something from outside of us.

And the fascinating thing, is that for us to have life our food must first die..

Whether its fruit or grain, meat or vegetables, everything must die in order for us to receive life from it.

Interestingly for us to receive spiritual life a death must also occur, Jesus died so that we can have life.

Food indicates our dominion.

This is why Jesus speaks of himself as food, he dies so we can receive him into our bodies so that we might life.

Second, food indicates our dominion. Adam was given the world to rule, and the world to eat. We are omnivores, who are capable because of the Creator?s design to eat just about anything. At the Eucharist, we eat bread and drink wine, which are not natural products. Thus, the Lord endorses our dominion, our economics of bread-making, and brings it into His presence in worship. Food expresses our creativity, which is central to being images of God.

So we have seen that food is central when God communes with his people, therefore it is central to biblical worship.

It was central in the garden of Eden

It was central in the sacrificial system

It is central in the prophets

It is central in the life of Jesus.

Foodless worship is unthinkable in the Bible.

This is why we must devote ourselves to the breaking of bread.

Devote Yourself to the Breaking of Bread

So when we see the early Christians devoting themselves to the breaking of bread, to this communion meal with God it begins to make sense.

God still wants to meet with his people around the table.

He instituted the communion meal for us before he died so that we could fellowship with him.

We don’t like to eat alone, nor do we eat merely for biological fuel.

And it is for this reason that the early church devoted themselves to the breaking of bread.

Sharing bread and meat brings us into communion with one another, we all partake of a single dish.

For without communion, we are not truly worshipping God the way he has invited us to worship him.

At the table, food is passed and shared. A meal always establishes community and fellowship.

Food has not only an economic but a sociological dimension.

We are to be a people who gather (fellowship) around both Word (apostles teaching) and sacrament (the breaking of bread).

When

So Church, let us be devoted to coming together each and every week so that we might break bread and commune together with our God.

Fourth, food has always been central to worship. From the beginning, the sanctuaries in the Bible are dominated by food. Adam and Eve in the garden are offered the tree of life; Abraham builds altars, which are tables; there is an altar and a table in the tabernacle. Communion with God is maintained through food shared before Him, food shared with Him.

Foodless worship is unthinkable in the Bible and has been unthinkable through most of Christian history.

Adam broke our Edenic table communion with God by eating the wrong fruit, but Jesus comes as Last Adam to restore communion. He eats and drinks with prostitutes and sinners and finally gives his body and blood for the life of the world. On the tree of the cross, he becomes life-giving fruit. Communion will be consummated in the marriage supper of the Lamb. From Eden to new Jerusalem, food and word are the media of our fellowship with God.