Feasting on the Savior

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 One of my favorite quotes is from the the late and great Eugene Peterson, the best. He said, “The Jesus way wedded to the Jesus truth brings about the Jesus life.”

This is his commentary on John 14, 6, where Jesus himself says to his disciples, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Now, a popular way to translate this verse is to think primarily or only in terms of how you get to heaven, which is absolutely true. We believe here at this church, Jesus is His blood, His death, burial, and resurrection is the only way you and I can actually be reconciled with God.

And to be with him in heaven, which we believe is the new heaven and the new earth for eternity. There’s simply no other way. You and I are not good enough. We will always fail the test. However, I actually believe this verse means not less than that, but also more than that. A more compelling and comprehensive way to read John 14 6 is to realize it’s not just about how we get into heaven, but about how heaven gets into us.

See, Jesus comes as a rabbi, and what that means is he comes and he gives a very specific road map on what it looks like to live in the kingdom of God, which is why he calls it the narrow gate or the narrow way, simply meaning there is a certain way you are on this road, how you are called to live. And so we really believe at this church when we do the hard and holy work of submitting ourselves to his teaching, which is the truth.

And adopting his lifestyle, which Jesus says, he’s the way we begin to experience his abundant Zoe is the Greek word life. Okay. So adopting, uh, practicing his teachings, living out his lifestyle lives to this abundance. And so to that end, every three months or so at Passion Greek, we gather around a specific way of living and teaching that Jesus embodied himself 2000 years ago.

And we are trying to figure out how to practice it. In the modern age. So last year, if you’re with us, by the way, one year anniversary of us being here at the school, which is pretty incredible. Yeah, you know, I guess that’s I think that’s how you guys clap because I never hear it. But last year we imitated him through Sabbath.

Remember that? That was fun. It was one of those where the idea sounded great. The practice was really hard. And then we talked about scripture, and hopefully you guys are still engaged in a daily habit of approaching God’s Word. And then, last year we ended the year with simplicity, simplifying our time, and our attention, and our possessions, and our relationships.

And so this year, Our whole main theme for the whole year is how to make friends and love other people. And so me and Pastor Caleb have been praying through what are three practices, lifestyle, routines, habits Jesus did in order for him to make other friends, make friends and to love other people. And we believe one practice Jesus was a master at was eating and drinking.

Amen, amen. Two times in the book of Luke, Jesus states his mission by saying the Son of Man has come. So whatever the next part of that Is is very important. He’s saying this is my purpose. I’ve come here to be with you. Luke 19 10 He says the Son of Man has come to seek and save the lost This is probably one that you and I are most familiar with which is incredible and I love to share Testimonies you and I we once were lost but now we’re found the Luke 7 34 is the other time we see that same phrase It says the Son of Man has come eating and drinking And you say, his critics, look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.

He ate so much people thought he was a glutton. That’s my kind of Jesus, I’m just saying. Read the whole book of Luke, you’ll see Jesus is either going to a meal, is at a meal, or just finished and is leaving a meal. Luke 5, for example, he dines with tax collectors and sinners. Very taboo for the day. Luke chapter 7, Jesus eats with Pharisees, and then comes a sinful woman.

Most of us believe she is a prostitute. Luke 9, he actually breaks bread at Bethesda in order to feed 5, 000 men, which many believe that actually equals 20, 000 men, women, and children. Communicating, he is all about meals. Luke chapter 10. Jesus feast with his disciples at Martha’s house. That’s that story.

If you remember, be Mary in a Martha world, right? Mary was just very content at the feet of Jesus. Martha was a hurried host. Luke chapter 11. Jesus dines again with Pharisees this time at noon and calls them out for a lot of things. It’s a lot of fun. Luke 14. He eats with more Pharisees, and he tells them this parable of inviting everyone to the banquet because the Pharisees love to eat but only with the elite.

Jesus wanted everybody at the table. Luke 19. He eats with Zacchaeus. He was a wee little man and a wee little. Nobody else raised on veggie tales. Uh, probably better for it. He eats with Zacchaeus and his tax collector friends. Luke 22, we have the Passover meal. We call the Last Supper, or now we call the Lord’s Supper, Luke 24.

He breaks bread at Emmaus to open the eyes of the two disciples who were on the road. And when they broke bread, their eyes were able to see. They’ve been hanging out with the Messiah, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, this whole time. At the very, very end of Luke 24, he has dinner. With his 11 disciples the 12th one began wound up betraying him and hung himself So the other 11 he has a meal with them, which is cool because the resurrected body eats so friends.

There’s food in heaven I’m here to tell you to the glory of God and he sends them out on mission Again, this is really good news because we follow a rabbi who loves to feed He also loves to fast, but that’ll be next year. Don’t worry. Okay. We will talk about that next February, uh, to prepare for Lent.

But for now, we’re going to talk about feasting. And so, for the next four weeks, we’re going to be talking and teaching about this practice called hospitality. You’ll hear us say throughout the next three months, we are a people who are formed. by hospitality. This word hospitality, real quick, is the Greek word philozeneia.

Can you say that to me? Philozeneia. One more time. Philozeneia. Philo means family love, like Philadelphia. Adelphos, by the way, has brothers and sisters. That’s why they call it the sister, I mean, sorry, the city of brotherly love. But philo is a family familial love, which is a really good love. I know we like to talk about like agape is just the only one.

That’s a great one. But how many of us, isn’t it great to feel like you’re part of a family? That’s what that philo love does. And xenia actually means alien or stranger. So philo xenia is to take a stranger or foreigner and make them feel like family through your love. That is what hospitality literally means.

Queue our definition, which will be in your booklets. You’ll be hearing it all year long. The practice of hospitality is creating space over a meal with saints, strangers, and sinners to experience the loving grace of God. Okay, so in 2020, 20, oh, it’s 2020, 20, 2024, Passion Creek Church will make friends and love other people by consistently attempting to have meals.

With saints, people who claim to follow the way of Jesus, with strangers, that neighbor you have never met yet, and sinners, which of course we are all sinners. Before Christ, I believe once we are saved, we are now saints who happen to sin. But sinners, people, the taboo people of the day, the people that the world claims, or some Christians claim we can’t hang out with, we’re talking about, let’s have meals with those people.

the others of this world. And notice this progression. We’re going to show you, I think it’s the easiest to feast with saints. It gets a little harder with strangers because it gets awkward, and then it’s even harder, maybe because we’re worried about reputation or whatever, or we’re worried about the conversations that will be had when we feast with sinners.

So notice the progression. So this month is going to get a little bit harder day by day, but our goal based off of Luke 7 34 as a church family is to have 734 meals. Over the course of this year. So if you walked in, hopefully you saw it. I know it’s a bit dark in here. But we caught a hospitality display over in the lobby.

Make sure you check it out after service. Let me just briefly explain the rules on this. Cause we’ve, they’ve already been broken. And that’s my fault. Okay, we put rules on there, but people don’t read. Anyways, I digress. So. What we have over there is a display that says our goal is to have 734 meals with saints, strangers, and sinners to experience the love and grace of God.

By the way, when you have a meal with them, don’t say, by the way, you’re my sinner for the week. Don’t do that, you know, like, let’s, let’s think of better ways to label, uh. But here’s the goal, uh, a few ground rules. We’re hoping by the end of this year, and we actually did the math, if the people who are in this room right now, who just lately have been consistent with us, if everybody has two meals a month, we will achieve this by the end of the year.

I’d like to blow that goal out of the water and be done sooner, but every time you have a host somebody over a meal, You come here, you have a sharpie over there, you take one ping pong ball, one per meal, not one per person at the table, okay, or else we’ll get done by noon, okay? So, one per meal, mark, for me, I’m just doing my initials, do whatever you want, just make sure it’s Christian, okay?

Mark on it so you kind of know it’s yours, and put it into the display. Make sense? This is one of our goals, one of our ways for us to be united in a mission together, we’re going to feast. And so, for our together group host, it’s already Amazing. You already have a guarantee. Once a week, you can come every Sunday and at least fill out one because you hosted your group.

Okay, so I just want to lay out the ground rules. I’m very excited to see those ping pong balls go up. And yes, if you’ve been hosting in January, that that is 2024. So remember those days? Mark it down. That’s why we’re already able to have some ping pong balls here on day one. Now, before we go any further, though, we cannot be hospitable to others until we get a better grasp And how God has been hospitable to us, right?

As gospel people, we must always remember that we were once the enemies of God who weren’t allowed at the table because of our own sin. But through the grace of Jesus, through His death, burial, and resurrection, we now have an invite to go to the greatest feast of all time, being with God, the whole Trinity, for eternity.

Romans 5, 8 10 should be on your screen. It says, but God proves His own love for us in this, that while we were still sinners. Still far off, still not really allowed to be at the table, Christ died for us. How much more then, since we have now been justified. Justification is a wonderful gospel word, I remember it.

Justified, remember it, is just as if I’ve never sinned. If you’ve been justified because of the cross, when God looks at you, you are justified. Just as if. You’ve never sinned because your record is clean. Why? How? By His blood, we will be saved through Him from wrath. We believe wrath is supposed to be poured out on sin.

That’s the only way sin is taken care of. The good news is the cross is God taking that wrath, because He’s a righteous judge who has to judge sin. And instead of putting that wrath on you and me for eternity, He pours that wrath on His Son on the cross. Verse 10: For if while we were enemies, We were reconciled to God through the death of his son, then how much more, having been underlined reconciled, will we be saved by his life?

We gather week in and week out because we are reconciled to God and to each other. And for centuries, the dominant symbol of reconciliation has been the table. During the time of Jesus, the dinner table was the ultimate boundary marker. So it was okay if you were caught talking to other people. It was not okay if you were caught eating with other people.

The others, you know what I mean. You only brought people to the table if they were considered family or friends or at least Uh, seen as righteous in society. So the Pharisees actually believed one reason, uh, that God, the kingdom didn’t come back yet, is that too many people were sinners and they were hanging out with too many other sinners.

And so this is why Jesus eating and drinking was very taboo. It was your way of knowing who was in or who was out, and Jesus kept bringing the people in who everybody thought was out. This was the ultimate boundary marker. It was more effective than your top eight on MySpace. Anybody remember that? Right?

Like, you just knew how your friendship was going. I remember my friend Johnny. I hit number three one day and I thought, I don’t know what I did, but I got to keep it. You know, I could check in on him once a week, see how things are going. I enjoyed being top three. And it always was until MySpace quit.

Anyways, but through the centuries, I have problems. We’ve reduced the significance of table fellowship. And I believe that’s to our detriment. Right, as Jesus people, it’s common for us not even have a proper theology. What is the table all about, and why is it so important? It’s possible in today’s world to be a Christian and yet never have a meal with anybody else but your own little family.

And that would be so antithetical, that would be so opposite of the early church. Leonard Sweet, in his great book on hospitality, he says, an untabled faith is an unstable faith. And I am so mad he came up with that before I did. It’s a good word, isn’t it? No wonder you and I may be so unstable. We’re not around the table enough in community.

Now, there’s actually a whole history of architecture and social behaviors. That I’ll spare you from today. We are starting this week. Ours formed by Jesus podcast is starting up again. Every single week during this series, me and pastor Caleb talk about the things we didn’t have time to talk about today, And then after that, starting in March, we’re gonna start interviewing you. You’re gonna come over to our studio, and maybe hopefully you’re practicing hospitality starting this week, And then you’ll start to share your stories your thoughts.

Okay, so me and pastor Caleb. I’m declaring it now we’ll talk about the history of architecture which led to why communion is so He’s so happy right now, is so stunted in today’s American church. It’s a fun history lesson that’s not worth here today, but it’s so worth the podcast. Now, there is one specific table fellowship that we have drastically reduced, and it made me the root of our many problems here in the Western church.

Do you know which meal I’m referring to? When you think of God’s grace at the table, what’s that called? Feedback here, guys. Come on. We’re gonna be a talking church one day, I believe, in the name of Jesus. The Lord’s Supper, right? Or I heard Communion. Both of those answers are correct. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 11.

There’s actually three more ways to call it too, and we’re going to learn that today. 1 Corinthians chapter 11, Paul is writing to possibly the worst church in history. They have all sorts of problems, and their problems have problems. And it encourages me to remember, despite all that we do, if we are covered in the blood of Jesus, we’re still saints, even though we don’t deserve it.

Verse 23. is where a lot of people read when they take Lord’s Supper. Once a quarter, once a week, once a month, whatever verse 23 says, for I receive from the Lord. What I also passed on to you on the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread. This is referring to Luke 22 and this is the Last Supper, and when he had given thanks, Eucharist, restore, he broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you.

Do this and remembrance. Do this in remembrance of me. Anybody remember, like, if you went to church growing up, you had that wooden table in the front, and it said that, and carved in, do this in remembrance of me, right? This is where that comes from. In the same way, he also took the cup, after supper, and said, this cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me. This phrase, remembrance of me, I think we have a shallow understanding of it because in today’s world, when we’re like, hey, do you remember this, it’s more like, do you recall this moment? Like, do you remember that memory? But for the people of God, especially Israel, remembering meant taking that past event and dragging it into the future as today’s reality.

The best example, like modern day that we’ve all done, the birthday cake, right? When you guys get together and we get a birthday cake, what are you remembering? You’re remembering their day of birth and especially the mom remembers it very well, right? And they say I brought you into the all that stuff happens on your birthday, right?

So you’re you’re now, but you’re not just excited about that day. I mean, that was a great day. You don’t remember it Okay, if you do talk to me, you’re don’t talk to me. Um Totally take that back. I don’t want to talk to you at all. Okay, so that day but you’re also celebrating today Right? So it’s not just a great deal that you were born, you know, 33 years ago, but we’re celebrating, you’re still alive, and it’s another birthday today.

In the same way, it’s like, hey, I remember Jesus dying on the cross and raising again what his body and blood did for me. That did happen one day 2, 000 years ago, but also has a present reality for us today. Do you get that? Another way Tim Keller describes it, I think it’s so helpful, this word remember.

He says, uh, think of, uh, what is the opposite of remember? It’s dismember. So think of a, like, my finger. If I were to dismember it, what does that mean? Like, the finger’s gone, right? Lord, don’t let it be, but that’s what dismembering is. So think about that. But remembering is to put something entirely back on you.

So when we remember around the Lord’s supper, we’re remembering grace. We’re remembering his teaching and his lifestyle. And we’re saying, okay, God, that is ours. We’re declaring that to be why we are here in your presence. You’re remembering. Okay. So let’s keep reading for as often. As you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sin against the body and the blood of the Lord. This unworthy, a lot of people are very terrified. This is why many saints in Christian history, sometimes they would only take the Lord’s Supper one time a year because they were terrified that what if they were unworthy.

But the reality is the only way I believe you can be unworthy is if you don’t treat it as special or you’re living in total deliberate disobedience sin and you don’t even care at all. There’s no remorse in you, and you just partake because everybody else is partaking. A worthy manner is to actually recognize, I am fully sinful.

I have, my problems have problems. I’m not perfect. That actually means you are worthy of the table, because the gospel is what? The gospel is we need one hero, this perfect person who did everything right, and it’s not you, or it’s, it’s not me. It’s King Jesus. And so actually knowing our unworthiness is what makes us worthy, right?

So verse 28, let a person examine himself. This is good to do before you eat. In this way, let him eat the bread and drink from the cup. For whoever eats and drinks without recognizing the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself. This is why many are sick and ill among you, and many have fallen asleep, which is just a Hebrew phrase for have died.

So this is pretty scary. If you really believe this, which we believe every word in Scripture, as long as it’s interpreted in the right context, there is a way to cast judgment on yourself. If you are not recognizing the gospel and just partaking in a meal just to partake in a meal, verse 31. If we were properly judging ourselves, we would not be judged, but when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned with the world.

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, when you come together to eat, welcome one another. That’s interesting. We see this very communal aspect to it. Now, Let me be quick here. The Lord’s Supper is one of five, five names we use to describe the same event, and I believe each name helps us remember a different aspect or remember, remember, remember a different aspect of God’s grace at the table.

So in order for us to get the heart of hospitality practice, in order for us to be hospit to hospitable to others, we have to remember how God was hospitable to us and we really are able to remember that. by partaking in first what many called the Lord’s Supper. So that’s, some traditions, this is the primary way.

Raise your hand, is this kind of what you normally call it? Um, wonderful. There’s three of you in the room. Great. That’s awesome. Now, this, notice it’s not called the Lord’s Snack. Have you ever thought about that? It’s a full meal. Right? The Lord’s Supper. I know we don’t, we’re in the southwest, we don’t use supper, we use dinner.

So it could, I guess, be called the Lord’s Dinner. That just feels weird. So we’re going to call it the Lord’s Supper still. Okay. But it’s such a big meal. If you read First Corinthians, you’ll see and we’ll look at it briefly pretty soon. It’s such a big meal that, um, literally, uh, some of the members at Corinth were getting drunk.

So, I’m sorry, you can’t get drunk. Well, first of all, it’s grape juice. But, uh, I don’t think it matters how much grape juice you have. I think the science says you can never get drunk. But it’s these little cups that we do today. Back then, it was a much bigger cup and a lot more bread. And the bread wasn’t the styrofoam thing that we called.

And I, you know, I hate to say it, we’ve done that before, so I can’t make fun of it too much, unless I’m just making fun of myself. No, it’s like a full bread. Now, I need to be quick here, but the last supper in Luke 22 was a Passover meal. So if you read Exodus 12, the angel of the Lord comes to destroy the firstborn son of any home that doesn’t have the blood of the Lamb over the doorpost.

Okay, so that is the context why they do the Passover. It’s the angel would pass over the home and not bring judgment if the blood of the Lamb was over the door. Okay. And so what they were called to do, they then left Egypt. Right. And we’re able to go across the Red Sea and into the wilderness, which eventually the promised land, which represents freedom.

And so they left sin, they left bondage, which is Egypt, and they were delivered. And so then God said, okay, now every year you’re going to do a Passover meal. You’re going to remember, remember, because you guys will live the life you’re called to live. If you remember what’s already been done for you. And so every year the Jewish people, and this is pretty incredible when, you know, 800 years later.

You know, after that actual exodus, they would do the Passover meal and they would act like it just happened. Yes, I remember. I wasn’t there, but I am so involved in this Passover meal that it’s as if I was there. Okay? And so, Jesus, though, fulfills the Passover by providing the wine and bread, but this time, at this Passover, there was no lamb prepared.

Typically, in honor of them having to slay the lamb and doing the blood, they would eat lamb that night. But Jesus just brings wine and just brings bread. Why? Jesus is the lamb. This is why he says, This is my body, this is my blood. There’s no lamb here because that lamb was always pointing to the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

Okay, so it’s a full meal. It has Passover undertones. That is completed in the personal work of Jesus, his body and his blood. The second word you’ll hear often is communion. Raise your hand if this is the one you’re more, okay, a lot more hands in the air. I actually call this communion, Lord’s Supper are the two that I use the most.

This word actually is koinonia. Another way people remember communion, I think it’s cool, it’s common union. So we’re unified over something common together. We have to remember, in the Garden of Eden, why did they get kicked out from the garden? They ate. The wrong fruit, right? From the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

So it’s pretty interesting. So what’s cool about communion, because what happened in the garden, you lost relationship, like you no longer have union with God or each other. Adam and Eve now had problems, right? And so communion is beautiful. Remember what happened in the garden? It was because of food, you guys got torn apart.

Now in communion, it’s beautiful. Because of food, we’re reminded we are back together because of what Jesus has done for us. Corinth was ignoring the unity part of communion. And most of us do today as well. Look at 1 Corinthians 11. Go back to verse 20. Verse 20. It says, when you came to, when you come together, then it is not to eat the Lord’s supper.

He’s giving judgment. He’s saying what they’re doing wrong. For at the meal, each one eats his own supper. So one person is hungry while another gets drunk. Notice this disparity here. Verse 22: Don’t you have homes in which to eat and drink? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing?

What should I say to you? Should I praise you? I do not praise you in this matter. What is happening here? The Greco Roman world Paul divided the home, divided all of society socio economically. So you were, uh, if you had a lot of money, you got a lot of benefits. If you were poor, you were put into the outskirts, you weren’t allowed at the table.

So church was supposed to be the one place where the rich and the poor, right, all the different ethnicities, every, we were united. And Paul is upset with them because here’s what was happening. The rich people would get together for the one time a week, let’s have a Lord’s But because the rich don’t have to work on the fields all day, they’re done with their job by 10 a.

m., they go to the church early, which they didn’t have a church then, so it was in a home, but they go to their home and they start engaging in the Lord’s Supper. They start having a bunch of bread and a bunch of wine. What is happening with the poor? The poor are still working, so they get there around six o’clock, and what has happened?

The rich have already eaten everything they saw, they’re buzzed. And the poor are like, I came to bring unity, and I wanted to have a meal, I don’t have anything to eat, and now it’s empty. Do you guys see that? And so, the rich were told, hey, wait! Don’t take in this meal, wait until the poor come together, and make sure we all have the same amount of food.

Why? In Christ, there’s no divisions, there’s no fractions. The meal shows we are completely unified together. It’s a full meal, filled with all the saints. Okay, check out the next phrase. Love Feast. Anybody called it Love Feast growing up? Caleb. You see this one spot in Jude 12. By the way, Jude is only one chapter, so you just say the verse.

Jude 12. It’s called the Agape Feast. It’s pretty funny. The early church was given quite the reputation. News spread that they were meeting together in homes for a love feast. And at this love feast, they were, um, eating a, the body and the blood of a Jewish man from, uh, from Bethlehem. That, that’s quite the reputation, you know.

They were, um, you know, all sorts of things were being labeled their way. But agape just simply means, uh, to seek the welfare of somebody else ahead of your own. So this love feast meant when I come together, I am serving you and I’m serving God. I’m not here to serve myself. And we have totally warped.

What the love feast is. It’s very individual, and it’s very, we don’t care about others. This is about our love between us and God. And that’s improper. John Mark Hicks, he wrote a great book on communion. I don’t agree with everything, but that’s most books. Um, but this is so good. He says. Quote, as Greco Roman culture invaded the Corinthian assembly, the Lord’s Supper became a moment of socioeconomic stratification, which is what we just talked about the point earlier.

But modern culture has invaded the contemporary church so that the Lord’s Supper has become an occasion for silent individualistic piety. So their problem was they weren’t allowing to have the rich and the poor together. Our problem is we have so privatized the faith. We assume communion is just between me and God and we’re never once considering, do I need to forgive a brother or sister in this room?

Have we reconciled together? Are we celebrating the grace of Jesus together? We only think about it. individually, which is honestly why we’re beginning to change. I’ve been convicted from studying this for the past few months, but waiting to pull the trigger. But I’m actually convinced by how we do the Lord’s supper, especially when you just come and individually partake on your own.

We’re thinking maybe we need to rewire this because that doesn’t communicate all of what the communion is supposed to do or the love feast. Is this your perception of communion? That it’s a love feast so far, right? First of all, it’s a full meal. Most of us don’t know that. It’s every class, age, race, ethnicity, all that at the same table.

And it is a feast filled with love, filled with joy, celebration. Why are we celebrating? We once were lost, but now we’re found. Our sin had a debt, but Jesus paid for it. In our place, there’s a lot to celebrate, and when we are at the table, it produces a huge sense of celebration and gratitude, which leads to the fourth word some people use is the Eucharist.

Raise your hand if you called it the Eucharist growing up. Okay, so it’s probably like some former Catholics, right? That kind of thing. Um, Or more high church. This is, uh, we kind of base this off first Corinthians 10 16. You’ll see the word Eucharist. Oh, it’s really essentially Eucharist means the Thanksgiving meal.

So when you’re at this meal, it’s to give thanks. Now, should there be grief when you come to the table? I grew up in a denomination, which is fine. Communion was very somber, very sad. You’re a terrible person. Remember that right before taking the bread and the cup. But grief should happen. An examination should happen, but actually should happen.

Before you even come to the table. Look at 28. In the NIV, I like how it, because it notices this prepositional phrase. It says, everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. Some have actually throughout history translated this by saying before we even get together to have this meal and when I’m at my home before I drive to go to this other before I come to church, I’m going to do my repenting and my examination now so that when I get together with the body of Christ, I’m already pumped and excited because I am clean.

I’m forgiven. I’m reminded of that, and I’m going to go celebrate his grace. It needs to be a Passover of Thanksgiving. I’m sorry, Lord’s Supper of Thanksgiving. And we actually see that with the Passover. So in the Passover meal, the family would do dayenu at dinner. Who remembers dayenu? We mentioned it last year.

Remember the phrase? Wonderful. I’ll try to keep preaching. Okay, so dayenu literally means it would have been enough. And so during the cedar dinner, uh, honoring the Passover, the father would get up, And lists like 11 or 12 or 58 different things God did to deliver the Israelites from Egypt into the promised land.

So they would start by saying, you know, like, you know, the lamb was spread over the door so that we would be spared. And then the children respond, Dayenu! Which means, that would have been enough! God is so gracious. He spared us from that. But then he says, yeah, and, and we actually went across, we left, and then the waters parted, and we were able to go to the other side.

And then the children yell, Dayenu, which means that would have been enough. God, like, you already outdid yourself. But then he says, oh, but then the waters caved in on the Egyptians so that we were now free. And then the kids say, Dayenu, that would have been enough. We were just at Disney World last week, and we would do that every meal.

I was kind of thinking of this sermon in mind, and it’s so fun. We would tell each other, like, Hey, wasn’t, uh, Guardians of the Galaxy ride? Like, how did you, how did you enjoy it? Oh, that was the best ride ever, that was so cool. And then we’d be like, that would have been enough, but guess what? There’s more rides to go, baby!

Come on, we gotta, you know, at the end of the night, like, wasn’t Animal Kingdom just so fun? What did you like about Animal Kingdom? Then we’d say, guess what? There’s more! We get to go to Hollywood. studios tomorrow or whatever, right? It’s kind of that same mentality. So at the Lord’s Supper or at Eucharist, we’re giving thanks.

So we say like at, at again, a communion, I’m using all these interchangeably. At the cross, Jesus took away our guilt. Deinu, right? That would have been enough. But not only that, he defeated our enemies of sin, Satan and death. Dayenu! Right? But then Jesus promises a resurrection body for you and me and a new heaven and a new earth.

Dayenu! You just go over and over. Wow, this meal is incredible. God’s grace is so stinkin good. Hear me, God is not a killjoy. If your version of Christianity is so, we gotta change that. We have a feasting God who welcomes everybody to the table and there’s a lot to give thanks for. Philip Yancey says this, he says, this table is different.

It isn’t where sinners find Christ, but where sons and daughters celebrate being found. Maybe someday, instead of solemnly making our way to the tables, we should dance for joy. Maybe we should sing every born again song we know. Maybe we should tell our homecoming stories and laugh like people who no longer fear death.

Maybe we should ask if anyone wants seconds and hold our little cups high to toast lost sinners found and dead brothers and sisters alive. How different is that than our conception of, it’s communion, be quiet, right? Did I take it too soon? When am I supposed to take it? When he’s reading the verse, or right after the verse, or when he, right?

Totally different. And the last biblical phrase we see is, breaking bread. In Acts 2, which we’re going to, we’re starting an Acts series at the, in March. We’re going to look at Acts for the rest of the year. In Acts 2, it says that they devoted themselves to the Apostles teaching and to the breaking of bread.

And people ask, was this a meal, just dinner, or were they having communion? And I think the answer is yes, they were doing both. And I love that Jesus chose bread for a few reasons. Number one, it’s common. Even the poor had access to make this meal. But two, sharing bread requires tearing it apart. They didn’t have the impressive knives you and I have today.

They would just tear it up and hand it to each other. And this tearing apart serves as a symbol of Jesus being torn apart for you and for me. Now, we don’t think about this a lot in modern day, but food’s supposed to constantly remind us, something must die so that I can continue to live. Every day, there’s an animal that has to die so that you can have sustenance to continue to live.

Every day, some of you, there was a plant who had to die so that you can eat it, so you can continue to sustain yourself. And to live. It’s in the fabric of creation. Something must die, so that I can live. And Jesus is saying, I must die, so that you can live. This bread represents my body. It’s going to be torn apart at the cross.

But it’s to give you life and life in abundance. Let me be clear: Jesus was broken apart so that you and I could be put back together. That’s the good news of the gospel, folks. The other day, my oldest daughter, Faith, she was getting really frustrated. I’m not the only one learning piano, which by the way, I think it’s so funny.

Caleb said that him and Shelby had a bet. How soon I would play piano on stage, and I beat both of them. They, uh, they were shocked how quickly I played piano a couple weeks ago. But anyways, Faith is also learning the piano, and so the lessons are getting, you know, a little bit more hard. And so, she didn’t make a huge fuss.

This is, she’s so sweet. She just kind of got off the, the piano and kind of sat on the couch, really sad. And so I brought her over, and, What’s wrong? I’m just really frustrated. Piano’s getting hard, and I don’t like it as much. I remember I told her, I said, Faith, everything good in life is hard. I think I’m like this motivational coach, right?

I’m like, look at me in the eyes. Everything good in life is hard. And she gets a little comforted by it. But then she shoots back, and I’m proud of her. She’s a Van Camp. She says, well, not food. Okay. She’s like, that’s not hard. I just eat it. So then my wife steps in, well, food can be hard for those of us who prepare it.

It’s not just easy. It doesn’t just show up out of nowhere. And she has such a great line. She says, yeah, but I don’t make the food. It’s just my job to enjoy it. And at communion, we remember that the tearing apart is hard, but that’s not our job to be torn apart. Jesus did it for us. It’s just our job to enjoy it.

It’s our job to feast on what Jesus did in our place. And so, when we partake, In communion, Eucharist, the love feast, we are reminded that God is such a loving and friendly host. And he invites us at his table and we don’t even have to prepare the food. We just show up and we enjoy it. And we want to become a people who embody that together and to the world that we feast because ultimately it communicates.

We are a people of reconciliation. We are people who don’t have enough power on our own, but Jesus is the power for us. And so this week, this week’s practice is simply to set the table. We’re going to say that a lot this year. In fact, our display is not finished yet. Shout out to Joanne’s. They haven’t sent me the letters.

It’s coming next week. Hopefully, that banner will say set the table on top. We are going to be a people who set the table. And so one way we’re going to practice that is we’re going to right now participate in the Eucharist or the Lord’s Supper or communion with love feasts or breaking bread. We’re going to do that right now.

So, as the deacons or whoever we establish to do this can start coming forward, we’re going to pass it around. And I encourage you, if you do not follow the way of Jesus, just, just gladly just hand it over. But this is for people who say, I can’t do this. I need the blood of Jesus. I need his body. And we want to partake in that together.

We’ll partake after our response song. But the second thing we’ll do this week is to partake in communion in groups. We’re more and more convicted about this. We’re going to actually make this every week this month. Uh, your group is going to start by having communion together and your leaders are going to be taught on how to do that.

We believe that there’s something powerful about this. We need this means of grace. We need this reminder that, friends, Jesus has done the hard work for us. It is our job to turn away from the sins of the world to the, to the, to the vomit, to the sin, and to feast on his goodness and his forgiveness. Let’s pray.