Gathered Around the Table
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The Rhythms of the Church
The Rhythms of the Church
We asked the question back in January: How are we going to be the church in 2021?
My hope in this series is not to redefine the church or to reorganize our church in some dramatic way.
Rather, we have sought to open God’s Word and look at what it says about how we are to BE the church as we have looked at the Rhythms of the early church.
We see the Rhythm of sharing a meal together as a significant part of how the early church functioned together.
42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts,
There 2 types of meals mentioned here, in 46 it seems they were sharing an actual sit down meal with one another, but in 42 it seems to refer to the Lord’s Supper meal that Jesus had instituted before His crucifixion.
God chooses a regular, every day event as a means to remind us, teach us, and connect us to the Gospel over and over again.
We really ought to be struck by the significance of the Gospel as we sit down to each meal we eat.
But this meal, the one we share as a faith family, the one we set aside time for during our gathering, has a much deeper significance that is often over looked and undervalued.
A Significant Meal
A Significant Meal
It is more than a simple tradition
We can’t let this important rhythm lose its power and significance.
It has become somewhat ritualistic, stale, and even kind of silly to those outside the church
Why are they eating a small, stale cracker and drinking a thimble of juice and talking about eating someone’s body and drinking his blood.
I think of when my mom would cook a country ham for Christmas with my dad’s family.
She would always cut off part of the ham before she soaked it. I asked her why and she said you have to do that, it is what her mom taught her. The ham wouldn’t be good if you didn’t do that.
So one day I asked granny why she did it, expecting some profound reason about flavor or something like it. But my granny said “So it would fit in my sink.”
You get my drift? We often do things out of habit or tradition without really knowing the purpose and significance behind them.
But often, when we dig deep, we uncover truths that bring out the beauty of the tradition. They are more than just making room in the sink.
We are declaring four deep truths when we celebrate this meal.
Let’s look at Luke’s account of the institution of the Lord’s Supper. When Jesus transformed a long-held and deeply important Jewish tradition into what we now know to be the Lord’s Supper.
In Luke 22:7 we find out that it is the day of Unleavened Bread, the day when the Passover lamb was to be sacrificed in preparation for the Passover meal.
This was possibly the most important meal of the entire Jewish calendar.
Jewish families would come together to be reminded and celebrate the Passover event, when God, through Moses, brought His people out of Egyptian slavery.
Each component of the meal had deep meaning that reminded the people of what the Lord did on that day.
But each peace of the meal also looked forward to the one who would eventually come and free them from slavery for good.
Jesus sends his disciples out to prepare a place for them to have this important meal.
We pick the story up later in the evening:
14 And when the hour came, he reclined at table, and the apostles with him. 15 And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16 For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” 17 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said, “Take this, and divide it among yourselves. 18 For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” 19 And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 20 And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.
We are TOGETHER.
We are TOGETHER.
There are a lot of ways God could have chose to commemorate and celebrate the message of His salvation.
There could have been an elaborate ritual, a reenactment where people play out the parts, or even a monument built that the people would have come back to.
But He instead chose a meal and then He chooses to make that meal even more significant for His New Covenant people, the church.
But I don’t think it was accidental.
God chose a meal because the dinner table is a place of connection, an place of community and God is a communal God.
15 And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.
Jesus’s words are so important.
Don’t miss the humanity of what He says here, “I have eagerly desired to eat the Passover WITH YOU...”
This acts of gathering around this table with His friends, with the men He has poured into, who have been by His side for 3 years, whom He has laughed with, wept with, prayed for, and whom He has grown to deeply love, Jesus has longed for this day, this moment.
Jesus knows this is His last meal, and He want it to be with this group of people.
He then takes a communal cup and a shared loaf of bread and has the disciples divide it among themselves.
Everyone gets a portion, no one goes without.
They serve one another.
And they wait for one another to join before they indulge.
There is deep significance in the shared nature of this meal.
Paul speaks of its significance in 1 Corinthians.
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? 17 Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.
The lack of sharing and community is at the core of Paul’s rebuke in 1 Corinthians 11:
20 When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. 21 For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. 22 What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not.
I have talked a lot about community in the last few weeks, our need for one another.
This meal we eat together today is a meal that calls us together, draws us together, and unites us together under the blood of Jesus.
There is no place for division, no place for bitterness, no place for envy, and no place for selfishness at this table, at this meal.
We are a HUNGRY.
We are a HUNGRY.
The dinner table is also a place for hungry people.
In John 6 Jesus and His disciples are in a valley with a large group of people, 5000 men and many more women and children.
Jesus tells His disciples to feed the people, to which the they say is impossible.
After gathering all the food they could there is only 5 barley loaves and 2 fish.
Jesus tells them to begin to distribute the food to the people, and soon everyone of those present are fed their fill of bread and fish and there were still leftovers.
This miracle had a purpose beyond just filling up bellies.
The next day, after Jesus and His disciples had crossed over the Sea of Galilee, the people started searching for Jesus, and found Him on the other side of the Sea.
This was quite an undertaking to transfer a huge group of people across a large body of water, but they were motivated.
When they find Jesus and ask Him when He left He answers:
26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.
They were hungry people looking for another meal.
Jesus uncovers a truth about every one of us, we are hungry, needy, and dependent.
Ever time we put food in our mouths we are admitting that we are in need of something we do not have.
We are admitting our dependence on food for survival.
But Jesus is uncovering something about the bread we all look to for satisfying out hunger, it is insufficient.
And so He declares:
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.
Jesus is our bread of life.
As often as we eat the bread and drink the cup, we remind ourselves that we need Christ to sustain us and preserve our faith just as much as we need food.
Because God knows our constant need, he chooses a meal to memorialize his provision for us and tells us to eat it “often” (1 Corinthians 11:25).
We gather to eat and drink because we are hungry.
We are BLESSED to BLESS.
We are BLESSED to BLESS.
After Jesus and His disciples had enjoyed what would seemed to have been a powerful and deeply communal meal, and this profound image of sacrifice had been given, we then read the next section.
24 A dispute also arose among them, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest.
It seems they had missed what Jesus had said and the magnitude of the moment.
Instead of reflecting on their own unworthiness to be sitting at the table with Jesus, the perfect God-Man who was about to die for the sins of the World, they started argue about who would be the greatest in Jesus’s kingdom.
It is absurd to read it, but it is so easy to fall prey to temptation to put self above others.
Jesus doesn’t throw them all out in disgust (thank the Lord).
Rather He takes a moment to teach, train, and rebuke them.
25 And he said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors. 26 But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves. 27 For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves.
One normal Lord’s Supper Sundays we serve one another the supper, passing the trays down the rows.
It is symbolic in the since that we are considering the needs of those around us.
And everyone in the room who takes this supper receives the same amount, because no one is more important than any one else.
In a world that is constantly preaching the gospel of self and calling us to fight for what is ours, the Lord’s table pushes against the tide.
We are to think of the needs of others before we think of our own.
We are to pursue service over prominence as we seek to live like Jesus in this world.
We are PROCLAIMERS.
We are PROCLAIMERS.
I don’t think Jesus had in mind this small portion of bread and juice necessarily, but I do think it has a significant truth in it.
We cannot be filled up with this little amount of food.
It leaves us longing, hope, wishing, and praying for more.
It brings us back to the table.
That is why Paul tells the Corinthians to continue to come back to the table until Christ returns.
26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
The rhythm of coming back to the table is a rhythm of declaration and proclamation.
We are declaring that God is our sustenance and we are proclaiming that all who come to Him will find true and lasting satisfaction.
There is a reason we fence the table, meaning we limit those who can take the Lord’s supper only to those who have trusted Christ for salvation.
This is not a meal for those outside the faith, for those who have not committed their life to Jesus.
His body and His blood are not your, and so they have no significance for you.
This is not your party, but it can be.
You are invited to watch, but not to participate, at least right now.
The celebration comes when you realize your need for Jesus, your need for forgiveness, your need for redemption.
We celebrate the Lord’s Supper because we want to proclaim to those watching today that they are in desperate need for what these elements represent.
There is nothing special about this bread or juice, but they are a reminder that we are invited to the table with Jesus.
And the look forward to the invitation we have to the great banquet feast we are told about in Revelation 19--
9 And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.” 10 Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.” For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
Jesus had this very meal in mind at the table with His disciples:
16 For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”
18 For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”
Jesus is looking forward to this day, just as today we look forward to the day when He will come in glory and call His people to dine with Him in His Kingdom.
So as we celebrate today, and I do mean celebrate, let us rejoice and long for the day when this small piece of bread and little bit of juice will be a bountiful spread shared with all the friends and family who have trusted Christ.
And most importantly, with the one who made it all possible, whose body was broken for us and whose blood was shed for us that we may be saved, set free, and welcomed to the table of the Lord.
Cheers family!
