Grace at the Table

How the Lord’s Supper Gives Us Joy and Confidence

Doctrinal Series

Manuscript Notes

Visual Guide

Texts: Romans 8:29-32; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26

Family meals matter. I grew up in a home where our schedules and rhythms allowed our family to gather at our table and share the evening meal. Not every family can do this daily – Beth’s and mine did not. But I was privileged as a boy to enjoy something for a season that I have come to greatly appreciate and that shaped important values in my life over time.

Those meals had a rhythm – we would hold hands, and my dad would pray the same prayer each evening. After the meal, he would reach for his well-worn Bible, read a passage in our presence, and conclude with another prayer asking God to bless each of us at the table. For more than 60 years, those mealtime rhythms have continued around his table. If I am honest, I endured many of those rhythms as a boy, hoping the Scripture would not be long and the prayer of blessing would be short, because I had things to do and places to go. However, the longer I have lived, the more I have come to appreciate them as the immense privilege and blessing they represented: a dad who loved, cared for, and prayed over each of us. Meals like this are good. But some meals are better than others because they rise above the daily needs they are intended to meet.

These meals are celebratory in nature – birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, extraordinary achievements, Thanksgiving, or Christmas Dinner. While there was blessing and profit in our everyday meals, these meals rose to an entirely different level. And that is what we have experienced this morning as we participated in a meal at a table spread by our Heavenly Father, with His Son as the guest of honor and us as family members invited to share in the celebration.

But I wonder how many of us actually saw what we did this morning as we participated in communion in this light.  I suspect most of us did not.

If we are going to improve our sight, we need to deepen our understanding of this important rhythm to our faith and worship.  And fortunately, the text we have arrived at in Romans 8:29-32 provides what we need to sharpen our focus, deepen our understanding, and fuel our joy at the gracious invitation we have from God to sit and eat at His table.

I have titled this message “Grace at the Table” purposefully.  You will note that I did not say “Grace from the Table” because this meal is not the source of the kind of meritorious grace that Paul has been talking about in Romans 1-8. Rather, I want to insist that, as we participate in this meal, we are really celebrating memorialized grace rather than receiving meritorious grace from the table.

And to help us see the table for the marvelous invitation it truly is, I want Paul to answer several questions that clarify the nature of the meal we have participated in together.

I. A Gracious _____________ – Who Comes to the Table? (8:29-30)
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. ³⁰ And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

1. Exclusive Invitation – only these people who have been known and called by God!
2. Inclusive Invitation – all of these people!

In other words, those invited to this meal are the same people we have been reading about in Romans 5-8! And if we have repented of our sins and become fully dependent, wholehearted, lifelong disciples of Jesus (looking to no other for salvation), we are included!

II. A Glorious _____________ – What is the occasion and what are we celebrating? (5 amazing realities that God has done)
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. ³⁰ And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

• We are celebrating a monumental thing with five astonishing realites that God has done for us:

1. The Inexplicable Love of God – foreknowledge means having an experiential relationship marked by love and loyalty.
2. The Sovereign Purpose of God – predestined to be conformed internally and transformed externally into the likeness of His Son.
3. The Gracious Call of God – called (summoned) by God to experience His saving grace and to partner in His mission to bring many sons to glory, so that His Son would be the “firstborn” among many!
   

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4. The Saving Grace of God – justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in the finished Work of Christ alone, as the free gift of God, not as the reward for spiritual merit we have achieved, or as compensation for good works we have done.
5. The Ongoing, Unstoppable Work of God – Glorification. Once God began the process with foreknowledge, it cannot be interrupted or diverted without assailing His character or undermining His credibility. God’s nature and God’s name rest on His bringing to full completion what He started in us! And He will do this on the Day when Jesus Christ appears in Glory.

III. An Irrevocable _____________ – On what basis do we have a seat at this table? (8:31-32)
If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

1. God’s Indescribable Love for us
   • God did not spare His Son – He did not withhold Him from us.
2. God’s Unimaginable Sacrifice for Us
   • God gave up His Son for us all – gave Him up as our Substitute – as a voluntary, vicarious, violent, acceptable sacrifice in our place.

IV. Divine _____________ – what is expected of me as I come to the table?
1 Corinthians 10:14–17 Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. ¹⁵ I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. ¹⁶ The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? ¹⁷ Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.

Here are four simple, but important expectations the NT writers expect of each of us as we come to this table and participate in this meal:

1. That I Truly Belong to Christ;
2. That I am in Unrestrained Fellowship with Christ;
3. That I come to this table in a worthy manner – with holy awe and joyful gratitude;
4. That I embrace the implications of what it means to participate in the holy nature of this meal.

V. Spiritual _____________ – what is the nature of what we are doing at the table? (Memorial or Sacrament)

1. Prefigured in the Old Testament
2. Jesus Announced and Explained
3. The Apostles Initiated
4. Paul Corrects and Interprets

This meal we observe regularly is a small t foretaste of that great banquet to which we are all invited and will one day share in!

VI. Personal _____________: What are the effects of this table?

1. Confident Assurance that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (8:1).
2. Triumphant Endurance because there will be no separation from God who has called and is glorifying His people by using all things to conform them to the glorious likeness of His Son!

Conclusion –   How Should We Respond to this Teaching (8:31-32)?

1. What should we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
   • Gospel-based Reassurance (Confident Assurance) that there is no condemnation, as we reflect on what He did for us at His first coming, His death on the Cross.
   • Gospel-fueled Reinvigoration (Triumphant Endurance) that there will be no separation, because we look forward to what He promised to do for us at His second coming in glory.
2. Why should we believe these things?
   • “He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”

Meals like this are intended to provide strength for daily living, which is why we need to rehearse certain truths in our hearts when we come to this table.

Meals like this are also intended to celebrate certain realities that produce deep joy and hope for the future. This is why we need to believe the things that this table represents and to “proclaim” (announce them) till He comes for us.