Come To The Table.
“Do not labour for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him” John 6:27.
You do not work in the garden, garage or car and then come inside, sit down, and eat food. You wash up first. This is why the Bible tells us to examine our lives before receiving Communion. We may see something that needs to be confessed and cleaned up.
When we come to Jesus with remorse and repentance, we find forgiveness, restoration, and an invitation to His table. Some people get so burdened by their sins, that instead of asking forgiveness, they figure they are too unworthy to participate, and they let pass the bread and wine without partaking.
None of us are worthy, but if we have trusted Christ, we are qualified He invites and authorize us to come to the table. See 1 Corinthians 11:28 “But let a man (or woman) examine himself (or herself), and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.”
2. Also before dining, we need a good appetite.
What would happen if you invited guests to your house for dinner, a meal you spent most of the day preparing from the best of ingredients? BUT, an hour before the meal was due, all your guests went to MacDonald first, there they eat burgers, chips, ice cream and a coke. After all that junk food, they would have little appetite for your good food! Paul tells us, “you cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s Table and the table of demons.”
God offers us a well prepared meal, the Bread and Cup will not fill us up physically, but they will satisfy our spiritual hunger. When we stuff ourselves with the junk food of sin we lose our appetite for the banquet that God has prepared for us. We need to “taste and see” the satisfying goodness of the Lord.
We are in the world, but we do not have to be of the world. We are exposed to sin, but with God’s help we can resist temptation.
Jesus promises, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” What does Jesus mean when He says we will be “filled”? I think a lot of people live their lives on EMPTY. They go day-to-day without much purpose or meaning, and when they reach the end they wonder what the point was in living. They are starving spiritually. Well Jesus is what we are truly hungry for, and good news. He is inviting us to His table!
3. When we are dining, we also need patience, time to enjoy the moment.
We live in a fast food world, even at home. Here, we need to take time to enjoy this meal in the presence of the Lord.
4. We also need harmony at the meal table, it is important.
What if a family got together for a meal and before long the table conversation turned into a major argument? Not everyone shared the same viewpoint, and the enjoyment of the meal got ruined as they argued.
We cannot expect everyone in our congregation to agree on every issue, but we are expected to get along together in love. Paul makes a point of saying that “we are one body” and we “partake of the one bread.” Conflict, tension, disharmony, can all ruin a perfectly good meal.
One thing we do not bring to the table is pain and hurt. We do not have to agree on absolutely everything, but rather focus on Christ. What unites us is greater than what divides us!
5. We need thankfulness for this meal.
Jesus gave thanks, and so should we! When we come as a church to the Lord’s Table, we need to eat with gratitude, to not take it for granted. We need to be thankful for the cost of this meal. Jesus has prepared a meal for us that cost Him His life. We should appreciate the sacrifice of our Saviour; otherwise we miss the whole point of this meal!
6. We also need to come to God’s Table with loyalty.
We avoid the competition. If your family owned a restaurant, you would go there often, tell others about it, and you would not want to eat anywhere else. Paul is talking about how people try to eat at the devil’s table, yet also come to God’s. We serve a jealous God (verse 22),
Who will not be replaced with substitutes? He demands our undivided loyalty. The Christians at Corinth were tempted to return to their evil practices of their former lives. Our partaking of Communion indicates that we are undivided in our commitment to Christ.
He is our top priority; He has pre-eminence in our lives.
7. We need to leave the Lord’s Table with purpose.
This is spiritual nourishment and strength for us, but strength for what? God would have us to live for His purpose, and that is to serve Him with all our strength. But many Christians are content to sit back and get spiritually fat.
They let the preacher lulls them to sleep until they next time the bell rings and it is time to eat again! Let us make sure and bring the right stuff with us, the right attitudes, and the right spirit.
Let us be prepared as we leave to prove and demonstrate the real spiritual strength and health we have by the way we serve and work for our Lord!
CONCLUSION:
They did not get it in Jesus day, but we do now! Jesus said these elements before us today are SYMBOLIC of His body and blood. There is no saving power in these elements, and none will be saved today by partaking. This is a time of remembrance. This is only for those who HAVE been saved by that sacrificial body and that redeeming blood, and want to obey the command to remember and be thankful.
If you are not sure if you have been saved, or you know you are not, and you would like to be, we want to give that opportunity. Unlike the rest of us who will merely be remembering the body and blood of our Lord and how He saved us, YOU will truly be receiving the real thing if you come and be saved.
