Sermon Cloud

Introduction – Our Meals

People like to eat.  You don’t need me to tell you that.  Because you like to eat.  Some of you wouldn’t even be here today if it weren’t for the free food.  And that’s okay.  Food wields a lot of influence for many of us.  It’s so powerful that some of us have to set very firm boundaries to keep us from eating too much of it or eating the wrong things.  Some of us turn to certain types of food when we want to be comforted.  Some of us turn to food during times of depression to self-medicate, while others turn away from food for the same reason.    Food is influential but this influence stretches far beyond how and what and why we eat in private.  It is also deeply intertwined with our social and relational lives. 

Think about it.  Why is it that when we schedule our meetings with people we tend to schedule them around meal time or over a drink?  Why is that when we discover a new restaurant we want to tell our friends about it, take them there, and allow them to share in the experience with us? Why is it that when we taste something delicious we cannot keep it to ourselves? We verbalize it and offer it to others, “wow, this is good, try some.”  Why is it that when we celebrate with others we do it over food?  Why is it that when we mourn with others we do it over food? Whether we realize it or not sharing meals with others is about a lot more than just sharing good food.  It is about sharing life. 

Food unites people around something common.  And as it unites us around a common meal it facilitates relational intimacy.  When we share a meal together we are in close proximity to one another, -- closer than we are in any other social situation.  We sit face-to-face and eye-to-eye – the perfect position for meaningful communication.  We sit in this position for an extended period of time – longer than we would in any other social situation -- which allows us to go beyond mere small talk.  We eat some of our meal from a common dish.  We give to one another and receive from one another as we pass a variety of things across the table.  We hum ble ourselves before one another as we sit at the table and acknowledge our need for sustenance from outside of ourselves.  We show our concern for one another as we share in the provision of the meal.  Because meals unite us around something common and provide for intimate fellowship they also serve as a statement of who we value.  Because of the intimacy of the meal we tend to share meals primarily with those who we like, and accept, and approve of -- people who we want to have intimate fellowship with.  You can learn a lot about a person by examining who they choose to eat with. 

Jesus’ Meals

The same is true about God.  You can learn more about who God is by looking at who he chooses to eat with.  And we can do that by looking at Jesus Christ – God in human flesh.  The gospel writers made a point of telling us about several of Jesus’ meals, showing us who he ate with and where he ate.  Let’s look to the Gospel of Luke and just review a few of those meals together.  The first meal Luke tells us about is found in Luke 5:27-32.  Jesus was traveling when he encountered a tax collector named Matthew.  Jesus called Matthew to follow him. And he did.  He walked away from his tax booth and left everything to follow Jesus.  Then, in honor of Jesus, Matthew hosted a great banquet at his house. He invited tax collectors and others and Jesus dined with all of them. This was incredibly significant because Jesus was a law-abiding Jew.  And if you think you don’t like the IRS, the Jews disliked tax collectors even more because they took money from their people and gave it to the pagan Empire of Rome.  When Jesus ate with Matthew and the other tax collectors he was breaking a social code but he was not just breaking a social code.  He was committing what the Jewish leaders thought was a disgraceful act.  He was sharing an intimate meal with tax collectors and sinners.

The second meal Luke tells us about is found in Luke 7:36-50.  Jesus was invited to dine at the home of Simon, the Pharisee, so he went and reclined at the table as was customary to do.  As they were eating a woman with a sinful reputation entered the home with an alabaster jar of perfume.  She stood behind Jesus, at his feet, weeping.  She wet his feet with her tears, wiped them with her hair, kissed them, and poured perfume on them in worship.  Simon the Pharisee was disgusted and thought to himself, “if this man were really a prophet he would realize what kind of woman was touching him.”  Jesus being God knew what Simon was thinking and he used this opportunity to rebuke him and to teach him.  He rebuked him for not being a good host.  Simon had not washed Jesus’ feet, nor had he given the customary kiss, nor did he put oil on Jesus’ head.  This woman was not the host.  She was not even invited.  But she was a better host to Jesus than Simon had been.  And this was because she recognized her sin.  She recognized her need to be forgiven of much.  And those who recognize they have been forgiven much respond with great love.  Simon did not recognize his need to be forgiven much and so he did not show great love.  Yet Jesus reclined at the table with both of them.

The first meal was hosted by a tax collector in honor of Jesus.  The second meal was hosted by a Pharisee who invited Jesus.  But the third meal was hosted by none other than Jesus himself.  For this meal, which you can read about in Luke 9:12-17, Jesus had over 5,000 guests – and he fed every one of them.  Jesus had been teaching this great crowd about the Kingdom of God when the time for supper approached.  Jesus’ disciples recognized that they were in a remote location.  There was no food nearby.  So they encouraged Jesus to send the crowd away to the surrounding villages so they could eat.  But Jesus had other plans.  Instead, he had them sit down in groups of 50 while he took all of the food that was available – just five loaves of bread and two fish --- he gave thanks for them, he broke them, he gave them to the disciples, and they set them before the people.  Every single person ate and was satisfied and the disciples picked up twelve baskets full of leftovers.  

Luke tells us about 7 more meals in the remainder of his gospel.  He tells us about Jesus’ meal with his friends, Mary and Martha. He tells us about Jesus’ experiences at the homes of two more Pharisees, as well as his meal with another tax collector, Zacheus.   Then he tells us about three very special meals that Jesus shared only with his most intimate disciples.  One on the eve of his death and two on the day of his resurrection from the dead.  As I said earlier, we can learn a lot about someone by looking at who they eat with.  And we can learn a lot about God by looking at who Jesus ate with. We just saw that Jesus pursued intimate fellowship with his friends (the disciples), with his enemies (the Pharisees), and with the social outcasts (the tax collectors and sinners).  This is shocking.  It would be shocking to see anyone cross all social and religious boundaries to include friends, enemies, and outcasts in the most intimate fellowship.  But this is not just anyone.  This is God in the flesh.  Which is infinitely more shocking.  Jesus’ meals were inclusive.  But Jesus’ meals were not only inclusive.  They were also transformational.  When Jesus sat with these people at the table he offered them an up-close glimpse of his holiness and an opportunity for repentance.  Jesus’ meals were not just meals.  They were exceedingly purposeful.  They were redemptive.  Their purpose was to challenge people, to change people, and to provide a picture of the Kingdom of God where people of all types are invited to an intimate feast with the King.   

Our Meal with Jesus

Jesus invites us to his table for the same reason.  Though he is not here physically he is still present to host an intimate meal, an inclusive meal, a transformational meal.  This is a meal we share with each other each week.  We call it “The Lord’s Supper,” “Communion,” or “The Eucharist.”  And we are not alone in this.  Followers of Jesus have been partaking of this meal since Jesus first introduced it on the evening before his death.  It is a meal that is rich in meaning and profoundly significant.  Because of that, the Scriptures take this meal and our participation in it very seriously.  Let us read again from 1Corinthians 11:17-34. 

In this passage Paul rebukes the Corinthian church for the way they have been approaching Christ’s table.  He warns them of the severe consequences that result from participating in this meal improperly.  It is important that we heed this same warning.  We cannot approach this meal as we might approach any other meal.  Because this meal is not simply a meal like any other.  As I said, it is a meal rich with meaning and profoundly significant.  So profound in fact that people have been looking into this meal for nearly 2,000 years and still have not uncovered all of its mystery.  Clearly, you and I cannot uncover all of its meaning this morning.  But we can look closely at 6 magnificent things that take place at this holy meal.  We will do that by focusing on six powerful words. 

The first word that reveals the meaning of this meal is the word “remember.”  Every time that you and I eat this meal we pause to remember Jesus Christ and his death on the cross.  The bread serves to remind us of the body of our Lord, broken for us.  The wine or juice serves to remind us of his blood, spilled for us.  This is what the Word of the Lord says in verses 23-25.  When we come to the Lord’s table we remember our great sin and our savior’s great love.  Because as we remember Jesus’ death on the cross we remember why he died.  He died in our place, to receive God’s judgment for our sin.  When we remember Christ’s death we remember the severity of our offense as we see the broken body and the shed blood that should have been ours.  When we remember Christ’s death we are reminded of our great sin as enemies of God who had earned his righteous anger and wrath in full.  But we are also reminded of our savior’s great love.  We had earned God’s wrath in full.  There was nothing we would do and nothing we could do to be reconciled to God.  Yet in the midst of our rebellion and in the midst of our hopelessness God came to us in the person of Jesus Christ.  And instead of pouring his wrath out on you and I, who earned it, he poured it out on his own son who was innocent of any and all wrongdoing.  The Bible says this in 1John 3:16,  “This is how we know what love is, Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.”  This is what we remember when we eat this meal.  We remember that Christ laid down his life for us.  He laid down his life in our place and for our benefit.  This is the center of our faith and the center of this meal.

The second word that reveals the meaning of this meal is the word “proclaim.”  Every time that you and I eat this meal we proclaim the death of Jesus Christ – we proclaim the gospel.  This is what the Word of the Lord says in verse 26.  The message of the gospel is the message about Jesus.  It is the message of his perfect life, his substitutionary death, and his victorious resurrection.  It is the message that through the person and work of Christ alone human beings are reconciled to God, and to one another, and to creation now and for eternity – not by who we are or what we do but by who Jesus Christ is and what Jesus Christ has done.  This is the message that followers of Christ proclaim with their words.  But this is also the message that we proclaim with our actions when we participate in this meal.  The gospel story is re-enacted every time that we break the bread and pour out the wine.  When we break the bread we proclaim that we are responsible for breaking the body of God’s Son.  When we pour out the wine we proclaim that we are responsible for spilling his blood.  And when we take these things into our body we acknowledge that his death is necessary for our life.  Simply by coming to this table we proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ.  We retell the gospel story with very vivid imagery. 

Through this meal we remember the death of Christ and we proclaim the death of Christ.  We also participate in the death of Christ.  That is the third word that reveals the meaning of this meal -- the word “participate.”  Turn to the left in your Bibles to the previous chapter, 1Corinthains 10.  Let’s read verse 16 – “Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ?  And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?”  This is why this meal is often called “communion.”  The word translated “participation” in this verse is the Greek word koinania, which can also be translated “fellowship” or “communion.”  The church you attend does not host this meal.  Jesus Christ is the host of this meal and when we eat it he is present.  Now just precisely how Jesus is present with us is a mystery but the fact that he is present with us is clear.  This meal is not simply symbolic.  It is true communion.  When we eat of this meal we participate with Christ, we have intimate fellowship with him, just as the disciples did as they reclined at the table with him.  We also participate with one another as we are united as one around the Lord’s Table.  Lastly, in some mysterious way we participate in the cross itself.  We participate in Christ’s suffering.  It is no secret that you and I suffer daily. But at Christ’s table our suffering is placed into proper perspective as we see Christ suffering for us and with us.  If we are in Christ our suffering is never meaningless and we never suffer alone.  As we eat and as we suffer we participate in his suffering and he in ours.  We are crucified with Christ.  Our old nature, our sinful nature, is put to death so that Christ might fill us with his life and his righteousness.

This leads us to the fourth word that reveals the meaning of this meal.  This is the word “nourishment.”  When we eat of this meal we receive spiritual nourishment from Jesus Christ.  This is symbolized in the meal itself.  As we approach the table we acknowledge our hunger, we acknowledge our need.  As we take the elements into ourselves we acknowledge that Christ alone provides the sustenance and the nourishment that we need.  But we do not only symbolize this at the Lord’s Supper.  We also experience it as we are literally nourished and sustained by Christ himself.  Jesus calls us not merely to feast on these symbolic elements but to feast on him!  Turn to the left in your Bibles to John 6:48-58.  Admittedly this is strange imagery.  So strange that verse 66 tells us that many people left Jesus and stopped following him because of it.  But as strange as this imagery is, Jesus chose it for a reason.  He chose it because it is vivid and because it is true.  Our life is found in feasting on Christ, feasting on his flesh and feasting on his blood.  This is not a physical feeding on Christ’s physical flesh but a spiritual meal that we feed on in faith.  We feast on Christ’s body and blood by putting our faith in him, by putting our faith in his life, and in his death, and in his resurrection.  We feast on Christ’s body and blood by trusting in him and him alone to be our nourishment, our sustenance, and our life.  He says in verse 57 that his life comes from the Father and likewise our life comes as we feed on him, as we put our faith in his body and blood rather than our own.  Now, Jesus is not speaking specifically about the Lord’s Supper in this passage.  He is talking about something that can happen anywhere at anytime.  But this is applicable to the Lord’s Supper.  Because when we approach the table in faith we are nourished and sustained by our host, Jesus Christ, who provides himself as our meal.

The fifth word that captures the meaning of this meal is the word “unity.”  As we eat the Lord’s Supper we express the reality of our unity with God and our unity with the People of God.  Listen to what the Word of the Lord says in 1Corinthians 10:17.  “Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of one loaf.”  As we eat from one loaf and drink from one cup we show that we have been united with one another in Christ, the one upon whom we feast.  This unity with the People of God is not just an incidental portion of the Lord’s Supper.  It is integral to the Lord’s Supper because that is the consequence of the gospel, that as Christ’s broken body and shed blood has reconciled us to God it has consequently reconciled us to one another as a new people created in, by, and for Jesus Christ.  Communion is not something we do as individuals it is something we do as Christ’s newly created and united people.  Which is precisely why Paul was so upset with the church at Corinth.  Remember that first sentence that we read in 1Corinthians 11:17?  Paul said, “in the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good.”  He then goes on to explain why he is angry.  In verse 18 he says that when they gather together as a church there are divisions amongst them.  And because of this Paul says in verse 20 that even though they gather together to share the Lord’s Supper it is in fact not the Lord’s Supper that they are eating.  Even though they are eating the elements of the Lord’s Supper they are really simply eating their own supper.  Because they are divided.  As you see in verse 21 and 22 the rich were spoiling themselves in their own private supper while the poor were going hungry and were probably forced to eat their supper in a separate room of the house due to lack of space in the dining area.  What was supposed to be a meal that brought the People of God together was a meal of hierarchy, division, and inequity. 

And because of this, Paul has some very harsh words for the Corinthian church.  Read verse 29 and 30, “For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves.  That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.”  This might sound offensive to you.  This might sound primitive to you.  But it makes complete sense.  God takes this meal seriously because he takes the life and death of his son seriously.  This meal is to be a time of remembrance, and proclamation, and participation, and unity.  If we instead make it a time of self-indulgence and division we profane what is holy and we deserve to be disciplined. 

But we must interpret these verses properly.  These verses have been abused and in the process genuine followers of Christ have been denied the privilege of sharing this intimate meal with Christ and with one another.  I attended a church that only took communion one time in the entire two years I was there.  And their justification for this was that many within our midst might be unworthy of taking communion and therefore they might drink judgment unto themselves.  They defined the unworthy person as a person who had too much sin in their life.  This is a terrible interpretation of these verses.  For one, every one of us is unworthy and has too much sin in our life.  There is not one of us who does not sin.  There is not one of us worthy of God’s love.  This is the message of the meal itself: that Christ died because we are sinners, that he pleased God on behalf of you and me who cannot please God apart from him, and that we desperately need to feast upon the life and death of Christ.  The meal is specifically designed for sinners who acknowledge their need for Christ.  How dare we forbid these sinners from eating the very meal that Christ gave to them.  Second, the context of this passage is very clear that those who should not eat the meal are those who are allowing division to enter into Christ’s body – the Church.  It’s worth pointing out that Paul does not actually call anyone “unworthy” of the supper.  He’s not using the word to describe someone’s character.  So he is in no way prohibiting those who live unworthy lives from taking the supper.  Again, the supper is designed for those who live unworthy lives and acknowledge their need for forgiveness and reconciliation.  Instead, he uses the word as an adjective, not to describe the person taking the supper, but to describe the way in which a person might take the supper.  He says that some take it in an “unworthy” manner.  And who are those people?  According to the context they are those that bring division into the Church, those that do not recognize the body of the Lord – meaning the Church – the body of Christ.  And this isn’t original to Paul.  Jesus taught something similar.  He taught that before coming to the altar to worship God we ought to get right with God’s people.  This is what Jesus says in Matthew 5:23-24, “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar.  First go and be reconciled to that person; then come and offer your gift.”  The Lord’s Supper is a supper of unity.  In it we express our unity with Christ and our unity with one another by Christ.  Before we eat this meal we should examine ourselves, as Paul says in verse 28, and see if there is any disunity between us and the family of God.  If there is, we must seek reconciliation before eating the meal.  But we should still eat the meal.  We should just eat the meal properly by honoring what it represents – unity with Christ and in Christ with the People of God. 

The sixth word that communicates the meaning of this meal is the word “salvation.”  When we eat this meal we are not only remembering what Christ has already done to save us, but we are looking forward to what Christ will do to complete this salvation.  Verse 26 says that when we eat this meal we proclaim the Lord’s death “until he comes.”  So when we eat of this meal at one and the same time we look backward and we look forward. When Jesus instituted this meal with his disciples he explained that the meal commemorated his death but he also promised that he will eat this meal again, but not until the Kingdom of God is consummated at his glorious return.  So as we eat we rejoice over the salvation he has brought us by his death and resurrection we look forward to celebrating that salvation with him when we rise from the dead at his return.  If we are now in Christ we will forever be in Christ and we will one day see him as he is, we will see him face to face, and we will share in an even more intimate meal with our Lord.  The Scriptures call this meal the “Marriage Supper of the Lamb.”  At this meal we will worship Jesus together as we celebrate what he has done.  He has taken the ugly and the irredeemable and he has made us beautiful and redeemed by taking us as his eternal bride at the cost of his own life.  Every time we eat of the Lord’s Supper we look backward to the cross of Christ and we look forward to the promised return of our savior where we will eat in his presence forever.

Living in Light of Our Meal with Jesus

As important as meals are in our culture they are even more important in the Kingdom of God.  In the Kingdom of God meals are not simply a place of physical nourishment, they are a place of spiritual nourishment.  They are a place of intimacy, and inclusion, and transformation.  Today we have looked closely at one meal in particular – The Lord’s Supper.  In this meal we are invited to remember Christ’s death, to proclaim Christ’s death, to participate in Christ’s death, to be nourished by the resurrected Christ, to be united together by the resurrected Christ, and to celebrate our salvation as we look back to Christ’s death and look forward to sharing a face-to-face meal with the resurrected Christ in the Kingdom of God.  As you can see, the Lord’s Supper is truly a meal like no other.  In this meal our host, Jesus Christ, invites us to sit at the table with him where we experience intimacy with him, we are transformed by him, and we are nourished and sustained by him. 

So who is this invitation open to?  Who should participate in this meal?  It’s quite simple.  Those who should participate are those who believe in what the meal represents.  The meal represents our own sinfulness and hopelessness apart from Christ.  The meal represents the broken body and shed blood of Jesus Christ who died in our place so that we could be reconciled to God.  The meal represents that we are united to God and to each other through the person and work of Jesus Christ.   The meal represents our hope in the future return of Christ to complete the redemption of his people.  If you believe in what the meal represents and approach the table with that in mind then you are invited to eat this meal.  And each time that you do you publicly affirm your need to feast with Christ and feast on Christ, you publicly affirm your need for his life and his death, you publicly affirm your desperate need for sustenance that you cannot provide.  And you publicly affirm that Christ is your only means of experiencing intimacy with God and intimacy with God’s people.  It’s not about being worthy of eating at God’s table.  You are not.  But Christ is.  And Christ invites you to God’s table.  He invites you: sinners, suffering, outcasts, enemies.  Not because you are worthy of the invitation, but because he has purchased your invitation with his worth and his death. 

Followers of Jesus should rejoice at the opportunity to eat this meal.  But we cannot just eat this meal.  We must also live in light of this meal.  Let me give you five ways that you can do this.

The first is this.  This meal is often called the “Eucharist.”  This name comes from verse 24 and is the Greek word for “giving thanks.”  To live in light of this meal is to live the Eucharist.  It is to live every moment of every day giving thanks for what Christ has done for us through his broken body and shed blood. 

The second is this.  This meal is also called “Communion.”  It is called communion because through this meal we have fellowship with Christ and fellowship with his body, the Church.  To live in light of this meal is to live Communion.  It is to live every moment of every day in communion with God and his people, knowing that this is only possible through the broken body and shed blood of Jesus Christ. 

The third is this.  This meal is also called “The Lord’s Supper.”  It is called the Lord’s Supper because Jesus instituted this meal, Jesus hosts this meal, and Jesus, in some sense, is the meal.  To live in light of this meal is to live The Lord’s Supper.  It is to live every moment of every day feasting on Christ’s person and work through faith, knowing that one day you will feast with Christ face to face.  

If we do this then it will change the way that we approach every meal.  And so the fourth way to live in light of this meal is to approach every meal as a reminder of the gospel.  Every meal unites people around something common.  Every meal provides sustenance and nourishment that we cannot provide for ourselves.  When we live in light of Communion we will see every meal as an opportunity to worship Christ and reflect on the gospel.

This leads us to the fifth way that we can live in light of this glorious meal.  And that is to take a missional approach to eating with other people.  We must see meals as more than just an opportunity to enjoy good food.  We must see meals as an opportunity to live missional lives as we invite people to eat with us, we invite people to experience relational intimacy with us, and we invite people to be transformed by Christ who lives in us.