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South Bay SDA Church

Jeremy Arnall

It’s Time To Eat

Corporations often do their business deals around it.

When going on a date, men often elect to treat the 1 they love to it.

Holidays and birthdays often are centered about it.

Of course, I speak with regards to the common meal.

We seem to inherently know that there is something special about a meal, especially when it is shared.

I don't know about you, and I in no way tend to be insensitive in this regard, but there is something in my estimation, very, well, it makes the loneliness more acute when you are left to eat alone.

I wonder how many meals are had over a kitchen sink, right?

It's not that there's anything wrong with it.

Some perhaps prefer it, although Eve found herself in trouble when she ate under that tree alone.

But the meal itself almost begs for companionship.

It's more than just about the consumption of calories.

I mean, this is something that is almost perhaps in the category of personal care.

Just like we need to bathe and we need to do these other personal care items.

And if you think about it in its very most crass manner, I mean it's really about putting this beautiful salad or this beautiful dessert or whatever And you take what is beautiful on the plate and you put it into this orifice and you masticate it until it's awful to even behold and you then swallow it.

I mean, I know that's putting it rather bluntly, but isn't that essentially what we're doing?

And yet we find that when we do it together, it's more meaningful.

This morning I want us to look at the value of a shared meal.

Lord, I pray that you would please guide us in our study this morning, that we might be edified, that we might be made full with the substance of your word.

For we believe and we know that there's power there, much more power and strength than what we could find at any table.

And so please, Lord, feed us with your Holy Spirit and your Holy Word.

Luke chapter 19 verse 10 says that Jesus came to seek and to save the lost.

Luke 19 10 Jesus came to save and to seek the lost.

Mark 10 verse 45 says that he came to give his life as a ransom for many.

Mark 10 45, Jesus came to give his life as a ransom for many.

Luke chapter 7 verse 34, as several others have also pointed out, it explains a key method to how he would do this.

With the same language that he used in Luke 19 verse 10 and Mark 10 verse 45, we see these words.

So how was Jesus going to minister to us in seeking and saving the lost?

How was he going to connect with us as he sought to give his life as a ransom for many?

1 way was in that he came, the son of man, eating and drinking.

Some, therefore, would label Jesus as a glutton and a drunkard, but they couldn't be more wrong.

Yes, that's perhaps what the priests were doing, feasting off the food of others, but not Jesus.

Certainly, but it was because he came to save sinners that he chose to eat with sinners.

So it was that when they accused him of eating with them, Jesus said, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.

And so it was that by his answer We see clearly that the dinner table was a key instrument, a key tool or method used in evangelism and ministry by Jesus.

This was how Jesus sought to reach the sinner where he was.

You see the tables, the table places us all at the same level.

We all are equally in need of nourishment and fellowship.

That just as we need to place food into our bodies, and we need to chew it, and we need to swallow it, and we need the energy from it, we need this very basic aspect of life, and praise God he made it enjoyable.

But we just as much need the fellowship that such an experience can often afford.

It's something inherently realized when around a table.

Think about some of the prominent meals that have taken place in the Old Testament story.

For example, in the Old Testament sanctuary, there was what was known as the meal offerings, Offerings made with special ingredients for the Lord.

These were frequently offered and the priest was instructed to eat a portion of some of these offerings made.

For food, catch this, food was an integral part of the worship service at the church in the sanctuary.

In the Old Testament, you see the importance given to a meal when a covenant agreement was made.

For example, Exodus 24, 9 through 11, tells us that when God was making a covenant with Israel, he gathered the leaders together before him on Mount Sinai, and it says that they saw God and that they ate and drank.

When you see God, you see this eating and drinking.

A meal in the Bible was a key component used in establishing a covenant or agreement with someone.

When Israel fled out of Egypt, God memorialized their deliverance with a meal, a meal known as the Passover.

God chose to use a meal to remind them of their deliverance from bondage.

And so it was, at the Passover meal that night, before his crucifixion, that Jesus established what we call the Lord's Supper.

Jesus would say for, quote, whenever you eat of this bread and drink of this cup you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

How interesting that Jesus would use a simple meal to reflect His gift and agreement with us.

How interesting that by sharing in a meal together, by eating together, we are proclaiming together the truth of His Word.

I mean God could have given us all sorts of different tactics, but He gave us a meal and He says, when you eat this meal, you are proclaiming.

That's another way of saying you're preaching the gospel.

By eating this meal in remembrance of him, we reaffirm our covenant relationship with him.

The covenant being that he will write his law in our hearts.

Well, Jesus said the bread represents his body, that the juice represents his blood.

And thus we are able to understand his words when we read in John 6, 53 to 56.

And Jesus said to them, most assuredly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in Him.

This is the establishment, the celebration, the confirmation, the proclamation of the new covenant, of the mystery of God, Christ in you, the hope of glory.

And when we apply what Jesus said there in John 6 with Colossians 127, we see that when we take this bread and we take this wine, which we don't believe in transubstantiation, this teaching that says that when you bless the bread and the wine it becomes the actual bread, I mean the actual body and the actual blood of Jesus.

That would be crucifying Jesus time and time again.

And Hebrews makes it clear that He died once for our sins.

But we proclaim, we demonstrate our faith and our belief in this reality and in this new covenant agreement that says, I will have Christ dwelling in my heart.

And by my profession in this belief, I will eat this bread, which reminds me that I must take Christ in.

I will drink this cup, which reminds me that I must take in the life of Christ so that when carrying out His will, I am but carrying out my own impulses.

I am proclaiming that when I eat the Lord's Supper.

So it is that this beautiful covenant relationship is celebrated and affirmed through a meal.

We see in the Bible how a meal is often associated with reconciliation, with redemption.

For instance, when the prodigal son returned home, the father celebrated the occasion with a meal.

When Peter returned to fishing after the resurrection, Jesus prepared a meal on the shore and he invited him to eat and it was here that he invited Peter to feed his sheep.

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It’s Time To Eat

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