Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] What a joy to be together today. Seriously. Thank you guys for being here. We are continuing our series in Matthew. So if you have a bible, if you want to open up to Matthew 15, that's where we're going to be today. If you don't have a bible with you, we have house bibles around the room. Just look underneath the chairs in front of you. If you are here today, if you're visiting and you don't own a Bible, I just want you to hear, like, we really believe in the importance of access to God's word here at Emmanuel. And so we would invite you to just take a pew bible home and keep it, or even better, talk to one of our pastors and we'll give you one nicer than the pew bibles because we would just want to make sure you have access to that.
[00:00:43] Guys, I got to be totally honest with you before we jump into this, I got to be real. I am absolutely spent today. I am running on empty. Many of you guys know that outside of my leadership role here at IFC, I actually teach Bible to 7th graders at Living Water Academy over in Wildwood. And it's awesome. It's such an amazing privilege. This week, they invited me to that church fellowship of Wildwood, invited me to come preach their back to school kind of rally for their kids, which is three nights. And so, on top of prepping for here today and getting my kids ready to start school next week and getting ready for my classroom, I wrote three extra sermons. As I speak.
[00:01:21] I say all that to say this, if I nod off mid sermon, what I need someone to do, it's probably going to be you, hunter. I just need you to nudge me awake and everyone just agree that you'll ignore it. Right? I'll jump back in. I'll keep going. You guys pretend nothing happened. The only people who will know is the livestream people. Okay, sorry, that's dumb. We're continuing our series. We're gonna be in Matthew 15 today because we're gonna consider what I think is genuinely one of the singular, most beautiful texts in all four gospels.
[00:01:52] And I mean that. I hope you'll see that with me as we go through this. And I think it's a little bit ironic because this is actually one of the most overlooked texts in all four gospels. And I think it'll be really evident why that is. When we get into it today, we're gonna talk about, and this is like, you know, analogous, but we're gonna talk about the table of Jesus. We're gonna talk about the table he sets and invites us to. And I think what we're gonna see, our main point is this, guys, Jesus table has open seats for everyone who comes to him for help in faith. And by the way, I'm gonna say that again, because if that doesn't light a little fire in your soul, then you're either not thinking about it fully yet, like, maybe you're still a little tired or like, you need to check your ticker, like, make sure it's still ticking. Guys, Jesus Table has open seats for all to come to him for help and faith, guys, the holy and righteous sovereign God of all of reality, the king of the universe, that God looks at sinful and broken, me and you, and he saves us seats at his table. It's nuts. He invites us in. He's extravagant in his generosity. One time when Kim and I were really young in marriage and ministry, we were like 23 at this point. We went through this really, really terrible, incredible, painful time in ministry. And some folk in the church we were at paid for us to have a little getaway for a few days to kind of recharge our batteries. And so we drug ourselves down to Branson, Missouri, because that's just what was available. It was awesome. And I just got to tell you guys, we were really hurting. We were really dragging. By the time we got down there, we were not doing great. And so we rolled into town at like 930 at night and we hadn't eaten. And we're driving up and down the strip looking for a restaurant that was open, which, if you go to Branson off season on a weeknight after 09:00 p.m. nothing's open. I also need to point out a tornado had actually gone through Branson like three days prior. And so even things that would be open were boarded up. And so we're driving up and down and we are like, you know, that kind of road trip, ragged, right? Like, disheveled hair, gym shorts, kind of sweaty, like Doritos crumbs in places they shouldn't be. We're driving around and we finally find the only open restaurant and we wander into it in our disheveled form and face the tuxedo clad mater d.
[00:04:23] And this guy gave us a table.
[00:04:28] He gave us a table. I don't even remember what restaurant this was, but I remember this experience because this is the guys, if you, you guys know me, I am much more a burgers and fries than mater d kind of guy, right? And so this is the only time I've ever experienced this in my life. We sat at a table, and there was a waiter in a suit who stood by the table the entire time. And when we spilled crumbs, he swept them up off the table, and we're sitting there in gym shorts. I got to tell you guys, the food is great, the service, top tier. That was one of the worst restaurant experiences I've ever had. It was awful. It was so painfully awkward. Right? We were incredibly underdressed. We were not the right people to be in that restaurant at that moment. Right? I don't know if you guys have ever had an experience where you've been just out of context, right? Maybe sitting at a table that you feel like you shouldn't be at. It's not pleasant, it's uncomfortable, and that's a silly example. But, guys, I think that's actually a way a lot of us approach our faith, even when we don't mean to. I think we can subconsciously do this. We look down at our own ragged hearts. We see our own failures, our own hurts, our own sin patterns. And sometimes it just feels like there isn't a seat for someone like us in the kingdom of God. You can show up to church and everyone around you has these plastic smiles where they shake your hands, say, how's it going? You go, oh, blessed to be here.
[00:06:12] And listen, I'm as guilty as anyone else, right? But it can be really easy when you're not in a good place, when you're more focused on the junk in your own heart, to experience that and just go, oh, okay, they've got it together better than I do.
[00:06:27] These people here are just more holy than I am. Maybe you experience some deep hurt or injustice, and then you just feel set apart when you step into these church type spaces. Or maybe you struggle with some habituated sin or some addictive behavior and you feel like, man, like everyone else seems like they're just doing fine and I'm just not holy enough to shake this. Or maybe you don't fit into the box of traditional family, married with kids. Or maybe you're just feeling anxious and lonely for whatever reason. It can be really easy to show up to God's people, to God's place, and just feel like you don't belong.
[00:07:07] I think a lot of us have experienced that before.
[00:07:11] But know this, beloved, in spite of his majesty and his holiness and his perfection, we serve a God who is a lot less like the fancy restaurant table and a lot more like your grandma's dining room table, really close to Christmas. You know, what I'm talking about, it's big. It's kind of beat up. It's got to spread like you can't believe. And you are invited.
[00:07:38] There's space upon you. There is space set aside for you.
[00:07:44] You belong. You're supposed to be there. Pray with me. We're going to jump into this text.
[00:07:49] Jesus, we need you this morning. Holy spirit, we ask that you would be our discipler, be our instructor, be our teacher today. God, I pray that you would challenge us in areas where we need to be challenged, that you would convict us in areas where we need to be convicted. Lord, we also pray that you would be our encourager today, that you would remind us of your love, remind us of our place in your kingdom, Lord, that you would teach us new things about you. God, let us leave here today having met with you in a way our hearts need.
[00:08:19] Spirit, we need you to do this in our work. We are incapable of it on our own. So, Jesus, we pray this in your name. Amen.
[00:08:27] Matthew, chapter 15. We're going to start in verse 29. If you guys want to read along with me, it says this. Moving on from there, Jesus passed along the sea of Galilee. He went up on a mountain and sat there, and large crowds came to him, including the lame, the blind, the crippled, those unable to speak, and many others. They put them at his feet and he healed them. So the crowd was amazed when they saw those unable to speak talking. The crippled restored, the lame walking, the blind seeing, and they gave glory to the God of Israel.
[00:09:01] Let's stop there for just a second. We're jumping back into a narrative that we've been looking at as it progresses over the last month or so here. So beginning back at the beginning of chapter 15, Jesus had a pretty major conflict with some religious leaders from Jerusalem. You guys remember this, the idea of scriptural purity or uncleanliness, right? These religious leaders show up from the center of jewish religion and they start arguing with Jesus, saying, you're not doing this right. You're not teaching correctly. And in that conflict, Jesus makes this radical statement to the Jews of his day, that uncleanliness is determined by our own hearts rather than what we touch or what we eat. That uncleanliness, impurity, this is an internal aspect of the human experience, not an external aspect of whether you do or don't touch something. As the chapter progresses, Jesus expands this idea by showing that we are all equal in our uncleanliness. Every single one of us has brokenness and sin in our hearts. We're all equal in our need for help to access the kingdom of God. Last week, we looked at a text where this gentile woman, who had no cultural reason to assume that she was welcome in Jesus life or ministry, received the exact provision she needs as Jesus commends her faith.
[00:10:28] She had told Jesus that even the crumbs or scraps of his power was enough for her needs. She was desperate. She would take any help she could get, and Jesus gave her exactly what she needed.
[00:10:42] And as we jump into our narrative today, it picks up immediately after that story. And what we see is that Jesus and his followers travel back south from the region of Tyre and Sidon, back to the area surrounding the Sea of Galilee. Now, I know it's a little weird when I take us into geography lessons, but I actually think it's helpful to begin to understand the land, the geography of this thing. It helps you understand what's going on in the narratives of Jesus life. So I'm going to bring this map back up, and you guys see the little blue jelly bean? That's the Sea of Galilee. And the vast majority of Jesus ministry happens in the region around the northwestern coast of the Sea of Galilee. That's where the city of Capernaum is. That's where Jesus home base was, where he lived during his ministry. And the vast majority of his ministry involved setting out from Capernaum to the villages and cities surrounding again the northwestern coast of the Sea of Galilee. In our text last week, he traveled far north, up to this region surrounding these two cities, Tyre and Sidon, these gentile regions. And we talked about how he went there really specifically, right, to this stereotypical gentile region, to go and interact with this woman. He's going to stoke up her faith and give her her needs, right? And so what happens in this text is he travels back south. Now, it would be really easy to just assume, as you read this, that Jesus leaves Tyre and Sidon, this stereotypical home of gentile paganism, and then heads back to Capernaum. That's where his home base is. Right. But we actually know that he makes his way down the northeastern coast of the sea of Galilee and ends up in this region called the Decapolis. Matthew leaves this a little vague in his telling of it, and I think he does so for literary reasons. We're going to talk about that in a second. But if you read Mark's telling of the exact same story, he's incredibly explicit on this point.
[00:12:40] We're going to see it in our text in a couple subtle ways, but I think it's important to understand Matthew is telling the story this way intentionally to make a theological point to us. So again, I know it's geography, but stick with me on this because I think there's something here that's actually really helpful. Remember the progression of this story. Over the course of chapter 15, jewish religious leaders challenge Jesus about ritual purity. Jesus fundamentally breaks down their understanding of purity and says, no, purity impurity has to do with the state of your heart, has to do with the sin within you. It has to do with what's in you that comes out of you. It's not about what you touch. It's also not about your genetics.
[00:13:21] And he exemplifies this by traveling into the stereotypical gentile region and meeting with this stereotype of a pagan gentile to the jewish people, a canaanite woman. And he meets her exact needs. He puts her faith on display as a way of challenging his followers to understand the kingdom is fundamentally different. And then Matthew immediately tells us that Jesus makes his way back down to the sea of Galilee. You have to remember, guys, the original jewish readers of this book would have been incredibly uncomfortable at this last scene, and so it would have been really easy for them to assume this meant he was heading home to capernaum. And as we saw in our text, Jesus just picks back up his ministry. It feels like a repeat of how Matthew has already described Jesus ministry throughout this whole book. Traveling around, he's preaching the good news. Repent, the kingdom of heaven is drawn near. He's healing every sickness and affliction brought to him. And guys, remember, this is way back in Matthew. But remember, Matthew has been very clear to tell us that Jesus ministry, his preaching ministry, repent, the kingdom of heaven is drawn near. And his miraculous ministry healing all these needs around him, that this is fulfillment of divine prophecy. Concerning the ministry of the jewish messiah.
[00:14:44] Matthew has gone out of his way to let you know. When you see Jesus preaching and you see Jesus miraculously healing, that's your reminder he is the Messiah the prophets have been prophesying. He's doing exactly what the prophets said he would do.
[00:14:59] And so it all feels like, okay, that was a weird story with the gentile lady. But he's stepping back into the familiar rhythms, and it feels kind of comforting until you get to verse 31.
[00:15:09] So the crowd was amazed when they saw those unable to speak talking. The cripple restored, the lame walking, the blind seeing, and they gave glory to the God of Israel. Wait, what?
[00:15:18] The God of Israel. Hold on, hold on, hold on.
[00:15:21] Doesn't Matthew just mean God, right? Like, Jews wouldn't call him the God of Israel. They would call him God. They would. And then it starts to sink in for the reader. Oh, wait a second. Jesus didn't actually return to jewish Galilee and capernaum? No, no, no.
[00:15:40] Even though his ministry is primarily to the Jews of Galilee, he knows. Jesus knows that his church will preach the gospel to the nations.
[00:15:49] And so Jesus is right now, in this text, as uncomfortable as it may have been, setting the example for what that would look like. See, when he travels down the eastern coast of the sea of Galilee into the Decapolis, he's stepping into a another gentile region.
[00:16:05] He's stepping outside of the jewish population, and he's ministering to non Jews again. Ooh. Okay, okay. Now, guys, as the scripture says, like, God looks upon the heart, not outward appearance. This is a great reminder in our text here. God does not divide people by race, culture, or country like we do.
[00:16:30] Jesus is doing something very specific for his church and his followers here. Right. I know my ministry is mostly to the Jews of Galilee, but my church is to the whole world.
[00:16:38] But for us today, reading it today, it's still a reminder. God doesn't divide the way we divide.
[00:16:44] God looks upon the heart, not outward appearance. He is seeking true worshipers. He's seeking those who will worship him in spirit and truth. He's looking for faith.
[00:16:55] And as Jesus will say later, if God can raise children of Abraham from stones, I'm pretty sure he can do it from gentiles. Praise be to God, since I think almost all of us in this room are gentiles, right?
[00:17:08] It's a really great reminder for us that every human being you interact with, period, is loved by God.
[00:17:16] Every human being you interact with is loved by God. The gospel is supposed to go out to all peoples, every tribe, nation, and tongue, even hear this church, the people that you don't like.
[00:17:29] Now, as I say that as good suburban Americans, you may be tempted to respond with something like, I don't hate anybody. I'm not racist or anything like that. And hopefully not. But here's the reality, church.
[00:17:43] Our hearts are riddled with wickedness, and you absolutely do hate people. I'm sorry. We do.
[00:17:51] You may not pick a group of people based on genetics or race, like the Jews hatred of Samaritans or the way they rejected the Gentiles, but you have your own system of who you do and do not like.
[00:18:02] Maybe you make that decision based on politics and which side of the aisle they hang out on. Maybe you make that decision based on manners and how people treat you in social settings. Maybe it's just about individuals and personal slights and personality quirks, and you have a listen of injustices done to you by certain people. But the reality is each and every one of us, if we're willing to be honest for a moment, have chosen who we do and do not like we have. And guys, it's so important to remember this. God does not see your enemies the way you see them.
[00:18:38] He just has a different perspective than you do. See, God is for them and for their repentance and for their life just as much as he is for yours.
[00:18:51] He doesn't divide people the way we divide people. And this should change the way that we consider and treat people we don't like. By the way, even those who deserve it should change the way we consider people. I mean, guys, think about David and Essie, right? Like one of our missional partners, David and Essie Paterka. They run when the saints in Malawi, Africa. It's an amazing ministry. If you don't know about it. Hey, go on Amazon prime. There's actually a documentary about them called win the Saints, free to watch. You should see it. It's an amazing ministry. They run. We mention this often, but just as a reminder, right? Like David and Essie win the Saints, they don't just run a safe home, counseling center and private school for abused and trafficked girls. They do that, and it's amazing ministry, but they actually go beyond this. And they run discipleship programs and recovery groups for adult men and women who abuse and traffic children.
[00:19:46] They minister to the abused and the abuser. And that's wild.
[00:19:51] It's wild for them to step into both of those pits of darkness to bring the gospel. But the reality is, guys, that's the heart of God.
[00:20:01] His table is big, and he has seats for the oppressed and the oppressor who turned to him in faith and repentance.
[00:20:08] Read on with me. This is in verse 32.
[00:20:11] Jesus called his disciples and said, I have compassion on the crowd because they've stayed with me three days and they have nothing to eat. I don't want to send them away hungry, otherwise they might collapse on the way. The disciples said to him, where could we get enough bread in this desolate place to feed such a crowd? How many loaves do you have? Jesus asked them. Seven, they said, and a few small fish. After commanding the crowd to sit down on the ground, he took the seven loaves and the fish gave thanks, broke them and gave them to the disciples. And the disciples gave them to the crowds. They all ate and were satisfied. They collected the leftover pieces, seven large baskets full. Now there were 4000 men who had eaten besides women and children. After dismissing the crowds, he got into the boat and went to the region of Magadhon. Now, we did a really familiar story here, right? Like, this one feels really familiar. I mean, didn't we just do this one? Wasn't this like one chapter ago? Yes, it was. The telling here is so similar to the exact text we just read in Matthew 14. It has all the same story beats, right? The crowd here is here too long. They're running low on food. Jesus has compassion. He tells the twelve to feed them. The twelve are incredulous. How the heck will we feed them? Jesus miraculously multiplies the food and everyone has enough to eat. And then they have tons of leftovers. Right? It feels like the exact same story as Matthew 14. So similar that some secular biblical scholars just assume that Matthew erroneously included two different versions of the same story. Right? But here's the thing.
[00:21:43] Nothing could be further from the truth. You see, both of these events happened, and it's incredibly important that both of them happened. Matthew presents them so similarly for a very specific reason. He wants you to think about these stories together.
[00:21:59] He wants you to read chapter 15 and remember back to chapter 14. He's furthering the teaching that Jesus has been building for this whole chapter. And when we start to consider some of the details of this story, it actually becomes, like, really evident. But before we do that, can I be confessional for just a second? Like, this is just a little bit of my church brat growing up in Sunday school confession. I don't know if this is true for you guys, but I have a feeling it is.
[00:22:26] I have always thought of this as the lesser of the two stories.
[00:22:30] Right? Okay, this is terrible. But in my head, I go like this. Well, it was only 4000 people instead of 5000 people. And, I mean, he had seven loaves to start out with instead of two loaves. And there were only seven baskets of. There was less leftovers. I mean, I don't know. I feel like the first one hit all the high points as though any of those things in any way affect that. He just miraculously fed thousands of people. Mentally, in my mind, I'm like, this is the B list version of the miracle, right?
[00:23:04] Which is just nuts. But as I say that, I'm pretty confident I'm not the only one in the room who's made that decision. Anyway, back to the story. A couple details I think are actually helpful to get ourselves into this text. The first is understanding the need here. So thousands of people have come into the wilderness to hear Jesus teach and receive his ministry. It tells us 4000 men besides women and children. So we're talking about a crowd anywhere between ten to 14,000 people, right? For comparison sake, the St. Charles family Arena's maximum capacity is 11,500, right? So think the entire family arena full to the brim, and people standing out in the parking lot, standing in a space with Jesus out in the open, with no sound system, with no tents, with no buildings for multiple days.
[00:23:55] It's pretty insane to think of this many people gathering, waiting to hear Jesus, waiting to receive his direct healing touch. If anything, it's a miracle that Jesus got through the crowds in three days.
[00:24:08] That's a lot of stinking people to get an individual touch and connection point with Jesus in three days. Now the text is going out of its way to let us know that these people have overextended themselves. They've stayed with Jesus too long, and now their need has become important.
[00:24:25] It's important to note it was actually really common in this day for folk in the region around the sea of Galilee because of the way industry and trade worked. A lot of times people had to travel unexpectedly for work or things like that. So it was really common for people to have essentially, like a messenger bag, a satchel they would carry with them. And there was even like these little kind of lunch boxes that were super common in that day. And most people kept around two days worth of dry goods in their bag just in case they had to travel unexpectedly or it took longer to get home than they realized. So the assumption is if something comes up, you can stay somewhere two days and you'll be fine. But now they're at day three and they're actually, like, running out of food, and Jesus gets concerned and starts going, man, we're in the middle of nowhere. And if these people head home now, like, they're already gone, a day without food, and I don't know how long it would take them to get home, they might not make it home. Like, this could actually be a real risk for them. Jesus has concern, right? And it's arousing his compassion. The twelve, this is what's so weird. I, they don't get it. They don't see how it can practically be done. And at first you go, well, duh. I mean, how would you possibly consider that they would feed thousands and thousands of people with one meal. But here's the thing. Jesus just did this, right? Like, he just did this recently. And so you really are left with one of two options. Either they're just going, look, I've been in a lot of context where people eat food. Only once have I ever seen thousands of people eat from one meal. I feel like that's the least of likely option. It could be that or it could just be that they're like, these are gentiles. I don't think Jesus is going to pull out the good miracles for them. They get the be miracles. So how are we going to feed them? I don't know. It could go either way. But of course, we know Jesus better than this. And we know that Jesus provides the exact same gift for these people as he did the previous crowd. Everyone eats their fill and they go home with the gospel message the ministry of Jesus accomplished on their behalf. And a full stomach. It's such a great story, but here's where we get a weird detail that even like, pushes it a little bit further. Notice the leftovers. I think this is weird, but it's interesting. When Jesus fed the 5000, there were twelve baskets left over. And Jesus is pouring on a little bit of symbolism here for us, right? Like twelve baskets for the twelve tribes. For the jewish audience, right? In his gentile audience, they get seven baskets of leftovers. Now the common language of Jesus day was to refer to the whole concept of gentiles as the seven nations. And this is a reference to the seven nations Israel is supposed to drive out when taking the promised land. So twelve baskets for the twelve tribes, seven baskets for the seven nations. Okay, cool. Yeah, he's differentiating like one miracle for the jewish people, one miracle for the gentiles. But it actually goes even a little bit deeper than that. So the word we read as basket in the feeding of the 5000, this is referring to that little lunch box we talked about earlier. It's a very small basket. It's like an individual meal. And kind of what you see in that is Jesus is providing food for his twelve disciples who missed out on their meal that day. And it is representing the twelve tribes. I think it's kind of cool. But the word we get for basket in our text today is a different greek word that refers to huge storage baskets used for mass storage. It's the same kind of basket that was big enough to lower Paul out of a window on the side of the city when he was being hunted. Seven baskets for the seven nations are huge, big old baskets. And so even though you have a smaller number of baskets, you actually end up with a larger amount of leftovers, which is weird. But I think there is something here. Remember our text from last week? Even the crumbs are enough for me. Jesus. And Jesus, I think, is saying here there are leftovers aplenty for all the people. There's plenty.
[00:28:20] Consider that there is plenty to go around.
[00:28:24] She was content with Jesus's crumbs. But in our text today, Jesus elevates the gentile people. They don't get crumbs. They get the same ministry as God's chosen people. They get the same treatment. They don't get something brushed off the table on the floor. They get a seat pulled out for them and an invite to a feast. And there are leftovers abounding enough for everyone to take extra home.
[00:28:50] That's why I love this text so much. Jesus is not just loving and serving and meeting a need for these people.
[00:28:57] He's setting an example and making a proclamation to his followers.
[00:29:01] Remember, guys, Jesus is earthly ministry primarily to the Jews of Galilee, but his kingdom is for the world. It is for all who come to him in faith. His invitation is wide open for all of humanity, for anyone who trusts him and seeks to. I mean, think of the apostle John's vision of heaven in revelation seven, right? In that day, there will be folk from every tribe, every nation, every language, a diverse spectrum of humanity gathered around Jesus, our savior, and our king. The wedding feast of the lamb of God will be a heck of a party.
[00:29:34] Tables wide. The invitation is open for all who want him. It's an amazing gospel.
[00:29:41] Jewish leaders and even Jesus followers are so caught up in being set apart as God's people and maintaining some kind of holiness that they forgot. The whole point of God choosing Israel was to draw all peoples to himself.
[00:29:56] Go back to God's Yahweh's original covenant promise to Abraham. What did he say?
[00:30:01] All nations will be blessed through you. Go back to the prophet Isaiah, chapter 60. What did he say? The whole point of God building up Jerusalem was that the nations could gather around the one true goddess.
[00:30:14] The gospel message of Jesus, the plan of God to redeem his people, has always been heading this way because God made everybody.
[00:30:23] Jesus made every kind of person. He's directed every culture and every country, and he delights in his creation. And he wants for all of us to acknowledge him and find life and freedom in him. Guys, it is a big gospel.
[00:30:37] Heaven is a big place, and the table of Jesus is wide.
[00:30:42] So if you're here today and you feel stuck spiritually.
[00:30:49] If you're here today and you're the kind of person where you just go, I just feel this wall between me and Christ. I feel this block between me and my connection to Christ. I want you to be encouraged today, and I want you to be challenged. Because, beloved, if you feel a block between you and Jesus, I promise you, he's not the one putting it up.
[00:31:08] You are invited.
[00:31:10] He has a seat for you. You can approach him. You don't have to fix yourself. You don't have to be good enough to deserve his help. You don't have to pull yourself up by your bootstraps enough to earn his mercy so that he meets you halfway. You can't do that.
[00:31:26] You're not good enough. You're not strong enough. You're not holy enough. We are all equal in our need for Jesus to intercede on our behalf.
[00:31:36] So what you can do is you can come to the table in need.
[00:31:41] You can come to the table as a beggar. And what you'll find is the compassion of Christ poured out for you.
[00:31:47] If you feel a block between you and Christ is a block you have constructed, you'll also, by the way, find the compassion of Jesus for all peoples.
[00:31:57] And here's where we come back to our main point today.
[00:32:01] The table of Jesus is open for all who come to him in faith and in need. The table is big, and there are plenty of open seats.
[00:32:08] So, brothers and sisters, those of you who are in a place where you're actually growing in your own acceptance of your place at the table, and you see the love and compassion of Christ for you, and you're actually living that life and growing in that freedom and that intimacy. The question remains, are you inviting others to the table?
[00:32:28] The church I grew up at, my pastor, every time they would have baptismal services, he would say, and still there are more seats open every time. And still there is room in the kingdom. Still there is room. At the wedding feast of the lamb in Luke 14, Jesus tells a parable about heaven, and he uses a wedding feast as the image. And so this king prepares a wedding feast, lets all the guests know about it. And when the day for the feast arrives, a whole bunch of people make excuses and skip the feast. And the king just can't stand to see all this party go to waste. And so he begins sending his servants, and he sends them out first, like, into the community, and they come back. I don't know what. He wants to come. Everybody wants to come. Come and so he says, okay, go past the neighborhoods, go out into the alleys, go into the bad part of town, go out into the country, go out on the highway. Find anyone? And he uses this phrase in her English. He says, compel them to come to my feast.
[00:33:21] These seats might be full. That my feast might be full of guests, beloved. The same is true of the wedding feast of the lamb. God longs to fill those tables.
[00:33:32] And you and I, we are the ones that he has sent to do just that.
[00:33:38] He's excited about all sorts of guests. You ain't got to be picky.
[00:33:43] He's excited about all sorts of guests, not just the people who look and act like us.
[00:33:49] So, beloved, are you gathering people to the feast?
[00:33:54] It's something that every single one of us is called to do, is empowered to do. You're inviting folk to the table.
[00:34:02] I think this part is so important to remember.
[00:34:06] You didn't earn your seat, right?
[00:34:09] You didn't earn that seat.
[00:34:12] You were a beggar who showed up and you received amazing grace, amazing love. Think, beloved, about your testimony.
[00:34:22] Think about how far you were able to get on your own strength and your own effort.
[00:34:26] I'm gonna go out on a limb, and I'm gonna guess it wasn't very far.
[00:34:31] Think about your own testimony. It was the compassion of Christ that forgave you, that drew you to life, the dream to repentance that made you into a new creation.
[00:34:41] You, just like me, were a beggar who showed up at the table and got more than you ever could have expected.
[00:34:47] And as you look around at that feast, there are empty seats everywhere. How can you not go invite more people in?
[00:34:57] The master told the servants to compel guests. It means try really hard to get them to accept his invitation.
[00:35:06] Do you have an urgency?
[00:35:08] Do you have the urgency of a beggar who found food telling the other beggars where the food is?
[00:35:17] Do you have the urgency to say, you have no idea? You don't have to be out here starving. You don't have to be out here trying so hard. It's here. Everything we need, it's here for us.
[00:35:28] There's urgency. There's excitement in that. Because, beloved, you can.
[00:35:34] It's something we are called to. It's something we are equipped to.
[00:35:39] So I think it's really important on a day like today, with a text like this, a text this beautiful, I think it's really important to stop for a few minutes and actually consider man who is in your life who needs to take their seat at the table because I guarantee you God has put people in your circle of influence who he longs to see the table of his salvation. I guarantee you he has made every single one of us his missionaries. And so as you think about every relationship you have and you think about these circles of influence you have, start expanding them out in your mind. Maybe if you're married, think about your spouse. If you have kids, think about your family. Think about your adult siblings. Think about your parents. Think about your extended family. Think about your neighbors. Think about your coworkers. Think about your classmates. Think about your friends at your hobbies. Think about the people you hang out and talk to at the gym. Think about the people that you have tangential relationships to. Just that person you see over and over at the grocery store. Because for some reason, you both go there every Thursday evening. Like, think about these expanding circles of influence you have in that space. You are a missionary of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:36:51] You are the missionary Christ has sent into that space.
[00:36:54] You are the one who gets to proclaim, you are the one who gets to pray for them. You are the one who gets to invite them to come find the goodness you've found to come receive the grace you've received.
[00:37:06] And I want you to hear this, guys. I feel like some of us, we've heard that exact thing a million times. And as you go through those circles of influence in your head, you can name 15 people, but they're just people that you've written off, right?
[00:37:21] I don't know. I've shared with my adult child a million times, and they just seem really turned off by it, and it's actually put a block in our relationship. I don't know. I've talked to that friend a couple times, and I really think if I push me harder, like, we might just not be friends anymore.
[00:37:35] I don't know. This person just seems really caught up in these destructive behaviors. I just don't feel like they have an openness to the gospel right now. Here's the thing, guys, that may very well be true. It may very well be true.
[00:37:48] You're still the missionary in their life.
[00:37:51] You are still the missionary in their life. I would encourage you guys, it's so easy to separate ourselves out from vocational missionaries. I would really encourage you guys, like, at some point in the next couple months, go read a missionary biography.
[00:38:06] Go read the biography of Adoniram Judson. He was the first Baptist missionary to the people of Burma. He translated the Bible in their language. It's still the translation they use.
[00:38:17] He was in that country seven years before a single person converted to Christianity, he was attacked, he was robbed, he had his house burned down, he had his Bible translation destroyed. Halfway through seven years of work and challenge, of political oppression, of arrest and release, before a single person came to know Christ.
[00:38:42] I say that to say this, that person in your circle of influence who you've written off, if they are still alive, if there is still breath in their lungs, you do not know the end of their story.
[00:38:56] You don't know what God is going to do in their heart. You don't know their trajectory. Don't give up.
[00:39:03] Don't walk away from that. Don't cease your praying. Remember Jesus parable that we would pray continually and not lose hope and not give up. Remember the widow who went and pestered the unjust judge until he finally said, I've got to do something about this, and he gave her what you wanted. Continue in your prayers, beloved. Labor in prayer for that person whom you love and who you long to see in the kingdom.
[00:39:30] You don't know what God might do in their life and also, you don't know what other missionaries he's put in their life. You only know that little bit you have. So stay faithful, stay in the work. Because the table is wide, there is so much grace, so much life. I'm going to close with this, Chris, if you want to come back up, I've got this weird theory, but I stand by it. I think the best dining room, like some dining room tables, are pointless. And you know the ones I'm talking about, these are the ones that sit, like, in a room where some of the furniture has plastic on it and you're only allowed to touch around Thanksgiving. Those are worthless. I'm sorry if that's your house.
[00:40:08] The best dining room tables, the best dining room tables are sacred spaces. They're sacred items in a house. I've actually got a picture of ours. It's in the back corner of our kitchen.
[00:40:22] It's actually pretty terrible if you look it up close. It's wonderful. I love it. It's old. We got this as a gift from our in laws when we moved into our house.
[00:40:29] It's big, it's round, it's old, it's beat up, it's scratched, it's stained, it's lost finish to nail polish remover. It has permanent marker lines on it. It has had heavy things dropped on it that has chipped out wood and left dings in it. It's got rings in it from hot coffee mugs and watery plates.
[00:40:50] Yeah, it's pretty beat up.
[00:40:54] Many of you guys know this table because you've sat at it with Kim and I.
[00:40:58] Many of you guys have actually shared laughter and tears over this exact table. It's been present for things like prayer and confession and counseling and plenty of meals. It's been around for holidays and birthdays. It's a wonderful space. And guys, it's a space that I think God has often used to glorify himself.
[00:41:18] And I'm going to go out on a limb and I'm going to guess that many of you have a really similar slab of wood in your own house.
[00:41:27] Beat up in used and showing years of wonderful, wonderful mission.
[00:41:34] By the way, these slabs of wood are a really great tool for the exact mission God has called you to. What we're just talking about your dining room table is one of the best places to share life, to grow in friendship, to have real gospel conversations. I'll just tell you guys, I said this a lot, but I think it's so true. It is really hard to judge someone, hate them over a slice of pizza.
[00:41:56] It's significantly harder to do than it is to do an abstract.
[00:42:01] You get someone around a table and you share a meal and share some life, and there's an apologetic that happens.
[00:42:08] It's a context where you get to show a person your words, your actions, their hospitality, exactly how good the table of Jesus is.
[00:42:20] I think a good dining room table, one that reaches the sacred status, right. I think it's a really beautiful thing where God is incredibly glorified. And I think that's actually happened in my beautiful maintainer, even though that's just my beat up old thing.
[00:42:38] At some point it'll go away and it won't really matter much anymore. At some point it'll probably be firewood, right?
[00:42:47] But, man, if that old slab of wood can be a sacred space where the gospel is experienced, then, beloved, imagine the table that Jesus has prepared for you.
[00:43:05] Imagine the table Christ has prepared for you.
[00:43:10] Of all the images he could have used, the image that Jesus chose to use to tell us about the inauguration of our eternity with him was a feast.
[00:43:23] Let's take a few minutes.
[00:43:25] I want to encourage you guys to do this. Harvey can in your seats. If you can do this in your seats. If you want to get on your knees somewhere, if you want to grab one of the testers to pray, if you need to, and write down a prayer request from one of the blue cards in the back, or schedule the time to meet with the pastor, I'd encourage you to do that in this time. But I want you to do what you need to do for a couple minutes to connect yourself with Christ, get into a posture where you can engage in some real prayer.
[00:43:50] And I'd love for you to do this.
[00:43:53] I would love for you to remember your own testimony, to take a minute to reflect on Christ's call from death to life.
[00:44:03] And I want you to take a minute to imagine that table he's invited you to.
[00:44:09] Maybe even open your bible to revelation seven. And look at it for a second.
[00:44:13] I want you to imagine that wedding feast, the place Christ is calling you to look out around it in your mind's eye.
[00:44:21] Look at the diversity. Look at the swath of humanity drawn in to the love and grace and forgiveness of Jesus.
[00:44:29] Consider those empty seats.
[00:44:31] Consider who you might invite to come take a seat next to you. And then in just a few minutes, we will celebrate the table of Jesus through communion. We'll have a take a minute to do the work you need to do with Christ, and then we'll continue worship.
