Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hope you had a great Fourth of July.
[00:00:02] It was good.
[00:00:03] Good. Nobody injured themselves in any way. Great.
[00:00:07] A couple of days before the holiday, Doug, our senior pastor, sent several of us an article about Burkina Faso, a country where only about 10% of the people are Christians and they face intense persecution. In this country, violence toward followers of Jesus is commonplace.
[00:00:28] And I of course, thought about this week about how different my life and your life would be if we were in that country instead of this one.
[00:00:40] I'm so grateful this morning to get to teach the Bible right now and to get to just stand here under the name of Jesus with no fear of present persecution, at least.
[00:00:50] It's amazing. I hope all the time that Jesus comes back real soon.
[00:00:56] But I also hope if he decides to wait that he will allow another 250 years of freedom like what we have here. I'm so grateful to live here.
[00:01:07] I'm specifically grateful to live in Texas.
[00:01:10] I look at my Texas driver's license sometimes just happy that I'm here. Anyway, I'm not joking.
[00:01:17] I'm also grateful that we get to go to the Lord's table and take communion today. It's already been a sweet time of worship.
[00:01:24] And as we continue in our series, the Table, we're now to the most famous table.
[00:01:30] And to get us thinking and to get our hearts leaning in the right direction, let me ask one of the core questions of life that we all wrestle with.
[00:01:38] Am I bringing enough to the table?
[00:01:43] Am I doing enough?
[00:01:46] What do I really bring to the table? You've asked that question. The perhaps the first time I remember facing that question was as a fourth grader. I tried out for the fourth through sixth grade baseball league. I was one of the youngest there. I'd never tried out for a sport before and I wondered if I was going to be enough.
[00:02:05] What exactly do I bring to the table for a Little League? Baseball.
[00:02:11] And the part of the tryout that I remember is that they hit everybody fly balls and I misjudged one of them and I ended up having to make a diving catch. And I. And I made it right.
[00:02:24] It was likely the first diving catch I'd ever made. And I remember thinking, I'm probably gonna get picked.
[00:02:31] And I was the first fourth grader picked for that league.
[00:02:35] And we drove home and I remember worrying that I had misled them.
[00:02:43] I thought they probably think I'm a fourth grader that makes diving catches when I'm really a fourth grader who's made a diving catch.
[00:02:52] And I wasn't sure I could bring to the table what they thought I could bring to the table.
[00:02:58] And you've all faced that in some ways big and small in your life. Are my grades enough?
[00:03:04] Am I pretty enough?
[00:03:07] Am I accomplishing enough?
[00:03:09] Do I bring enough to the table as a spouse, as a parent, as a co worker?
[00:03:16] And it never really stops. That was the fourth grade. I had a similar moment just a few years ago.
[00:03:22] I led a publishing business unit within a larger church resource company. And we were doing a profitably, a profitability exercise. Many of you have done something super similar to this in your workplace. The team I led was actually made up of several teams that developed and sold different products. And I was asked to evaluate the best way to use our resources. For example, I had one team of people that cost about $3.5 million a year, and the product they made brought in over $40 million a year.
[00:03:57] That's bringing a lot to the table. Very great margins. It was awesome.
[00:04:03] But one of the smaller teams in my shop, they only a few people, they only cost about $500,000 a year. But their product, one product, only brought in about $600,000 a year that was on a decline that did not account for the product costs. And it was pretty clear that I should let this team go and put those resources towards something that could be more impactful. Some of you have been involved in decisions like this, and I remember making that decision. And the meetings were scheduled. And as I drove home that day for my 44 minute commute, it hit me that, wait a minute, my boss is having conversations like that about me.
[00:04:45] I reported to the top table, I was not at the top table.
[00:04:51] And as I drove home, I thought they might decide I'm not bringing enough to the table and I might get invited to a secret HR meeting on my calendar next week.
[00:05:01] Thankfully, I made it.
[00:05:03] Thankfully I now serve here and I don't have to worry about that anymore.
[00:05:08] But as a kid, am I bringing enough to the table for this little league baseball team?
[00:05:14] As an adult, am I bringing enough to the table for this publishing business?
[00:05:19] And we all have those moments.
[00:05:21] We live in so many ways. In a merit based culture, our success is often based on what we bring to the table, our approval, what we bring to the table.
[00:05:34] Our comfort, even in a lot of ways, is based on what we are able to secure by what we bring to the table. But this morning we have the opportunity to embrace the beautiful imbalance of the Lord table we get to see today.
[00:05:51] That's not how it works with Jesus. Table so much about our world makes it harder for us to experience the power of the Gospel. Our lives lead us constantly to wrestle with am I doing enough? Can I be enough? Am I bringing enough to the table? But I want us to love right now the inequity at the Lord's table.
[00:06:16] I hope you will rest today in the reality that only one person brings enough to the Lord's table. There's no ability, there's no profitability, there's no beauty that you can bring that makes any difference. At this table. We have them set up in the front and the sides.
[00:06:34] So here's what we're going to do.
[00:06:37] We're going to start in the middle of Matthew 26, reading the moment that the Lord introduced communion as he celebrated the Passover with his disciples. And then we're going to look at the verses on either side of that passage to see what they show us about the people who were at that table that evening. As we compare what the Bible says about the disciples who came to that meal with what it says about Jesus with, we'll see a strong reminder of the best truth in the universe. When we come to the table with Jesus, it's not about what we bring, but about what he brings.
[00:07:12] So let's begin reading Matthew 26, verse 26. Now, as they were eating, Jesus took bread and after blessing it, broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, take, eat, this is my body.
[00:07:26] And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, drink of it, all of you, for this is is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. So foundationally, what's happening here is that Jesus is foreshadowing and illustrating his coming very soon. Sacrificial death through the Passover meal. The Passover, as many of you know, was a time of remembering for the Jewish people. It was a time when they reflected on God rescuing their ancestors from captivity in Egypt.
[00:08:00] And so on that night, Jesus gathers his disciples.
[00:08:03] He institutes communion to show that he is going to rescue the world from the captivity of sin and death.
[00:08:11] Jesus breaks the bread and tells his disciples, this bread represents my body. First Corinthians 11 adds, this is my body broken for you.
[00:08:22] Jesus is letting his followers know that his body would be treated like the bread, broken like the bread for them. Then he took the cup and he said, my blood will be poured out for the forgiveness of sins, poured out to pay the penalty for their sin, my sin, your sin.
[00:08:43] So this simple Meal was prophetic that night.
[00:08:48] And it's meant to be a reminder this morning of the fact that Jesus came to save sinners at the cost of himself.
[00:08:57] Those are the elements.
[00:08:59] That's what it signifies. And we'll come back to it at the end. But let's consider the participants.
[00:09:06] What do we know about the disciples at the table that night? Just from Matthew 26, what do we know that the disciples brought to the table? And then we'll do the same thing with Jesus.
[00:09:17] What did the disciples bring to the table? And first we see they brought a judgmental spirit.
[00:09:26] We see that in verse six of the chapter. Now, when Jesus was at Bethany, in the house of Simon the Leper, a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask, a very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at table. And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, why this waste? For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor. But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing. Thing to me.
[00:09:52] So a woman is literally worshiping Jesus through her giving. And the disciples are like, who do you think you are?
[00:10:00] They were indignant about something that Jesus goes on to say a couple of verses later would be remembered with honor forever. As it still is even right now.
[00:10:10] Jesus calls them on it and says, why are you bothering this woman?
[00:10:15] Sometimes the disciples were jerks.
[00:10:20] Remember when they kept little kids from coming to Jesus? And Jesus like, hey, that's not how we do things around here.
[00:10:27] These guys could be jerks.
[00:10:30] They also brought betrayal to the table. Verse 14.
[00:10:34] Then one of the twelve whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, what will you give me if I deliver him over to you? And they paid him 30 pieces of silver. And from that moment, he sought and an opportunity to betray him. This is heartbreaking. Judas watched Jesus overflow with compassion and supernatural power. For years, he watched Jesus do loving, miraculous things.
[00:10:59] But because Jesus wasn't doing what Judas thought Jesus should be doing, Judas betrayed him. So the disciples had judgment at the table. They had betrayal. There was also doubt.
[00:11:12] Verse 21.
[00:11:13] As they were eating, he said, truly I say to you, one of you will betray me. And they were very sorrowful and begin to say to him, one after another, is it I, Lord? This is fascinating.
[00:11:27] So Jesus plans to betray Jesus, and he's at the table. Jesus knows who's going to betray him, says that he knows who's going to betray him. And then everybody freaks out.
[00:11:40] Matthew said they were sorrowful and asked to a man, is it me?
[00:11:46] Which means they weren't sure if they were going to betray him.
[00:11:50] You know, sometimes in the gospels and even in Acts, we see Jesus's disciples doubting who he really was. There could have been some of that going on here, but they were certainly doubting their standing with him.
[00:12:04] They were doubting their own feelings and actions toward him. These disciples are at the very first communion table, and they don't understand their own hearts toward the Lord.
[00:12:16] They also brought cowardice to the table. If you can't tell, it's not going to be a very flattering list.
[00:12:24] Pick up with what happens after the Lord's Supper. They sing a hymn. They leave. Verse 31, Jesus said to them, you will all fall away because of me this night. And then if you skip down to verse 56 of Matthew 26, it says, then all the disciples left him and fled.
[00:12:43] So when Jesus is arrested later that night, these disciples who've just been at the first Lord's table run for their lives.
[00:12:53] I mean, certainly that shows some of the doubt that they felt at the table. What's really going on here?
[00:12:59] However, somehow even acknowledging that they also also brought. They brought pride to the table.
[00:13:06] How could you even do that? How could you even do both of those things? They managed to do it.
[00:13:12] Not only the disciples abandoned and denied Jesus, but they were super vocal about the fact that they would never abandon or deny Jesus.
[00:13:20] Verse 33, Peter answered him, though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away. And guess what? He extra fell away.
[00:13:30] But they all talked like Peter in that moment. Verse 35, Peter said to him, even if I must die with you, I will not deny you. And all the disciples said the same. And let me repeat, they ran away immediately.
[00:13:46] If we had more time, we could keep going. But that doesn't sound super fun, does it? In the garden, the disciples showed they had a lack of discipline that they brought to the table. Prayerlessness. You get the idea. What the disciples were bringing to the table was weakness, pride, judgment, doubt, brokenness, sins of all kinds.
[00:14:08] And that's just Matthew 26.
[00:14:11] If you read through all the gospels, you can't help but leave with the strong impression that these guys weren't very good.
[00:14:21] And here's what's incredibly important.
[00:14:25] They wanted us to know that because they wanted us to know that they're the kind of people Jesus came for.
[00:14:34] Jesus said in Matthew 5, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. He said in Matthew 9, I did not come for the healthy, but for the sick.
[00:14:46] The disciples are precisely the kind of people that Jesus came to save. He came for for his body to be broken and his blood to be shed. For judgmental, betraying, doubting, prideful cowards.
[00:15:07] And the disciples showed that that was true. Even in how they reported about themselves in the life of Jesus. The disciples shared the real story about who they really were.
[00:15:21] I've told quite a few of you now over the past year that I've been collecting life stories from the people in our church. And very early on, I couldn't believe that people were really telling me their real stories.
[00:15:36] I've heard somewhere between 100 and 200 grace life stories at this point. And even though you are the ones narrating your life, you haven't left out the painful parts.
[00:15:51] I've heard about your broken marriages, your career failures, your sin struggles, your affairs, the mistakes you made with your kids.
[00:16:04] I think I've teared up in every taco shop in Tyler.
[00:16:10] Sitting with sinners who are willing to share the truth because you have encountered God's grace.
[00:16:19] That's exactly what's happening in the Gospels.
[00:16:23] Because remember that Matthew, the author of Matthew, is at this table.
[00:16:30] Matthew left in the part about how he and his friends had a judgmental spirit. He left in their cowardice, their pride, their doubt. Across the Gospels, we see the same account of disciples being broken, sinful men. And then we remember that the disciples are the reason that we have that information to begin with.
[00:16:51] The disciples want us to know that when they are sitting at the communion table considering the coming death of Jesus, they did so as broken, needy, sinful guys who had failed and whose biggest failures were still to come.
[00:17:11] In light of that, how amazing is it that Jesus even shows up to have this meal in the first place.
[00:17:20] How beautiful it is that Jesus looked into the eyes of these guys who brought the worst to the table. And yet he broke the bread and he shared the cup and he spoke confidently about the salvation that he was going to bring to them.
[00:17:39] So in comparison, let's consider what Jesus brought to the table.
[00:17:46] What do the circumstances surrounding the Lord's Prayer tell us about who Jesus is and what he brings? It's way easier for me to help you see the depths of the need of the disciples than it is to help to see the vastness of the Jesus.
[00:18:04] But on Jesus's side, let's start with some major Christian doctrine. You might remember that Last September, I made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich as a way of illustrating the theological truth of the hypostatic union. If you don't remember, please don't tell me. It'll hurt my heart.
[00:18:20] The hypostatic. I know you guys don't remember. That's fine. The hypostatic union is the term for the reality that Jesus Christ is one person with two distinct natures, one fully divine and fully human. He's the Word, he is God. He put on flesh.
[00:18:41] Everything that Jesus did, he did as the God of the universe while in the body of a man inside his universe.
[00:18:51] And to help us see a little bit better the infinite disparity between truly infinite disparity between Jesus and his followers at the table, let's focus for a moment on the fully divine nature of Jesus. If you were to read Matthew 26 straight through, you would see Jesus reference His Father four times. His Father, once during communion, twice in the garden, and once being arrested, then after his rest, arrest. Also in Matthew 26, he stands before the high priest and he says, he's the Son of God.
[00:19:27] So that means that Jesus is fully man, fully God, fully Son of God, all at the same time.
[00:19:37] And I want us to try for a moment, try to acknowledge the uncomfortable vastness of the person called Jesus by considering the Trinity.
[00:19:51] The Christian God is undeniably triune.
[00:19:55] Father, Son, Spirit. The Bible uses what we call Trinitarian language when talking about the God of all creation and salvation. He is one God. Deuteronomy says, hear, O Israel, the Lord, your God is one.
[00:20:13] And yet all over the place the Bible talks about the three persons of the one God. For example, two chapters later, Jesus gives the Great Commission, right? And he said to baptize them in the name singular of Father, Son and Spirit.
[00:20:35] And I want to share one of the classic ways of thinking about the Trinity called eternal relations of origin. How do the three persons of the Trinity to relate as how do they relate as our one guide God? Watch this. If you're worried you're not going to completely get this. We're not.
[00:20:53] That's the point.
[00:20:55] But our triune God relates eternally through paternity. God, the Father is eternally existent. Try to fathom it again. You can't. It's always good to remember to try. Eternally existent, eternally begetting the Son, with whom he shares the same perfect essence and relates through filiation. Some of you have heard that word before. The Son is eternally existent and of the same perfect essence. While eternally begotten from the Father. Finally, through spiration, the Spirit is eternally existent and of the same perfect essence as the Father and the Son, while eternally proceeding from the Father of the Son. Good luck. Our God, the one true God, is eternal. Father, Son, Spirit, by their divine relations of origin and connected to that, the three eternal persons of the one Trinity have what's called divine appropriations.
[00:21:56] I know you're still with me.
[00:21:59] That's referencing what the all powerful persons of our one eternal God do. And so now I'm quoting theologian Matthew Barrett. Scripture specifically identifies distinct persons of the Trinity with distinct works of the Trinity, because certain works are more specifically manifest, certain persons of the Trinity. And what that means is that the unfathomable God of all things has divinely deemed certain works to distinct persons of himself. And one of those works is his eternal, all powerful, incomprehensible Son putting on flesh to sit at a table with the very people who rejected Him.
[00:22:50] And if you didn't understand all that, of course you didn't.
[00:22:55] How could we?
[00:22:59] How could we?
[00:23:02] He is incomprehensibly eternal and vast and superior. God is the irreducibly essential source of everything.
[00:23:19] He's not the best imaginable version of a human.
[00:23:25] He's something else.
[00:23:29] He's other, incalculably more for forever.
[00:23:39] He's the always existing three in one sovereign.
[00:23:45] And he deigned to come in person to the ancient Middle east, specifically to Jerusalem, specifically to a table in an upper room surrounded by judgmental, betraying, doubting, prideful cowards.
[00:24:06] Can you see eternal, infinite Jesus breaking bread with human hands?
[00:24:18] That's crazy, incomprehensible God pouring the wine with human arms.
[00:24:29] He's God, the God, the divine man, the eternally begotten, Most High, wearing sandals.
[00:24:46] And because of that, the things that Jesus did and said and knew in his human body were divine. The disciples got to see glimpses of it all the time. He healed people with a word or with a touch. Gu. He resurrected bodies from the dead, like just whenever.
[00:25:07] Remember after he stopped a storm by speaking to it. What did the disciples say?
[00:25:13] What manner of man is this?
[00:25:17] What manner of man is this?
[00:25:21] See the divine understanding that Jesus brought to the table that night. Verse 1 and 2 of Matthew 26. Jesus showed that he brought the divine knowledge of his own death to the table. Verse 1. When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples, you know that after two days the Passover is coming and the Son of Man will be delivered up to Be crucified. We talk about it a lot. Never forget. This is crazy.
[00:25:48] Jesus is eternal.
[00:25:51] Jesus is literally the requirement for the universe to exist. And he's going to be crucified.
[00:25:59] He also spoke prophetically of his burial. Verse 12. In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. Jesus brought divine knowledge of his friend's betrayal to that table. Verse 31. Jesus said to them, you will all fall away because of me this night. For it is written, I will strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered. The cosmic king knew his earthly friends would run away. Jesus brought to the table prophetic knowledge of his torture.
[00:26:26] Verse 38, the Garden of Gethsemane. Then he said to them, my soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch with me. And going a little further, he fell on his face and prayed, saying, my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Jesus, the eternal Son of God, knew what salvation was going to require of him. How awful it would be. You know what he did? He went to the table anyway. He broke the bread anyway. He went to the garden anyway. He went to the cross anyway. He went to death anyway. How can this be?
[00:27:00] How can God, who exists eternally, die?
[00:27:08] The answer is very simple.
[00:27:11] It can only happen on his terms.
[00:27:18] He's got to want it.
[00:27:22] He's the eternally begotten.
[00:27:25] This was his ultimate divine appropriation, the job he came to do. So it can only happen if and how he chooses.
[00:27:37] Which means, guys, Jesus didn't just sit at the communion table knowing about his betrayal, about his death, about his burial. No. He also knew about his resurrection.
[00:27:48] Listen to Matthew 26:32.
[00:27:53] But after I have risen, not dead yet.
[00:27:57] After I have risen, I'll just go ahead of you to Galilee. It's like he's planning their next meeting. I'm going to die for the sins of the world. After I have risen from the dead, here's where we'll meet up.
[00:28:14] This is Jesus, the Divine One in a human body, offering communion to a table full of failures, saying matter of factly, after I rise from the dead, what manner of man is this?
[00:28:32] What manner of meal is this?
[00:28:36] He's God as a man, and it's his meal because it's his plan. Because the eternal, all powerful God, eternally and all powerfully loved you so much that the table and the cross and the tomb is what he wanted.
[00:29:01] The salvation of his friends who failed him is what he wanted. You and all that you know to be true about you. The stuff you told me and the stuff you wouldn't even say, that's who he wanted.
[00:29:18] So we're about to go to the tables together.
[00:29:22] And today I wanted us. We're doing it differently.
[00:29:26] I wanted us to get out of our seats and walk to it together.
[00:29:30] It's going to be messy.
[00:29:35] I'm going to pray in a moment and we're going to walk up front. We're just going to get up and we're going to walk together. There's four tables and we're going to have to wait.
[00:29:44] And you're going to stand there.
[00:29:47] We're going to sing several songs. This is going to be a sweet time. You're going to stand there and wait for your bread and your cup, surrounded by sinners.
[00:29:59] And all I want you to see is that you can't bring anything to this table that will change the math.
[00:30:08] You don't bring anything to this meal that changes how the eternal triune God of the universe feels about you.
[00:30:17] Jesus brings the divine perfection. Jesus brings the sacrifice. Jesus brings the death. Jesus brings the resurrection and the love and the everlasting life. What do we bring?
[00:30:30] What do we bring?
[00:30:33] We bring what the disciples brought.
[00:30:37] We bring our judgmental spirit.
[00:30:40] We bring our pride, our betrayal, our doubt.
[00:30:45] We bring our need.
[00:30:51] What we bring to the Lord's table is the sinfulness that makes him show up in the first place.
[00:30:59] He showed up because he loves us. He leads us to remember the price he paid for us. Guys, the table is not about us, but it is for us.
[00:31:09] Jesus comes to the table with everything. What does he leave with us?
[00:31:17] We come to the table with nothing and we leave with everything.
[00:31:24] We come to Jesus with our need and we lead, lead with his love. Let me pray for us that we will approach this moment.
[00:31:42] Forgiven hearts, joyful hearts, grateful hearts.
[00:31:48] Father, you are amazing.
[00:31:51] Father, thank you for sending Jesus.
[00:31:55] Jesus, thank you for dying in my place and my friend's place.
[00:32:01] Spirit, thank you for opening our eyes to see the truth of the love of God.
[00:32:08] I pray that right now, as we walk forward and we stand, we go back to our seats and we eat the bread and we drink the cup that we would remember you. And remembering you, we would remember your love for us.
[00:32:23] It's unbelievable.
[00:32:26] Help us even now to do this as worship.
[00:32:30] So we're going to worship through communion, through singing here in this moment for the next few minutes, if you're a Christian, we're going to come and we're going to crowd around just wait. Get your cracker, get your juice. Go back to your seat.
[00:32:48] Eat and drink the cup. Eat the bread, drink the cup in remembrance of Jesus. Just on your own, surrounded by sinners, other people who have been forgiven, like you.
[00:33:04] So come, receive the meal.
[00:33:07] Take it as you wish.
[00:33:09] Let's sing to Jesus and let's do this in remembrance of him. And I'll come out and close us in a few minutes.
[00:33:15] Would you stand and come?
