The Lords Table

of all the promises in the Old Testament, all the promises are fulfilled in Him and therefore we come before God and Christ Jesus. In fact, today is because we're going to come to the Lord's table, we come to, it's like a celebration and a rehearsal again of the covenant that He has made with us in Christ Jesus, the new covenant that makes us the people of God and brings us into His presence. Friday night we had a wedding, Holly Peterson, which is now, who is now Holly Fox, was married to Jamie and it was a celebration of a covenant before Almighty God that brought them together and they formed a brand new union that's going to last their entire life. And that's what's happened to us. When we rest our faith in Christ we've come into this union, we've entered into a covenant that God has made and it rests upon Him and as we obey the covenant we experience the benefits of it.

When we're disobedient to the regulations of the covenant and we suffer for it but we have entered into a covenant that God has made that can never ever be broken or done away with it's an eternal covenant and God's going to keep this covenant. That's the wonderful thing. Many times we're not faithful to it but He remains faithful and He is going to bring us into a very presence. I don't know what it's going to be like when we come into the presence of God as a group. It's going to be a massive group of people but we're going to worship in the presence of the living Christ and it's going to be so personal for us. We're going to rejoice in a way that we can't even imagine now. Just think about it.

When all that is in you that keeps you from worshipping God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength keeps you from worshipping Him in spirit and in truth now is going to be removed and you'll be able to worship Him perfectly. That's going to be quite a day. Amazing time. I want you all to meet somebody. Robin Thomas is with us. She didn't know I was going to do this. I don't want to be embarrassed. Why don't you just stand up so they can see you are. Robin just came to faith in Christ this past week and this is the first time she's come to the Lord's table with her brothers and sisters in Christ. That's a time of great rejoicing. We determine me to John chapter 4. Let's look at a passage such a wonderful account, an event in the life of Jesus that has incredible significance for us.

I'm just going to read the whole passage, not the entire chapter but down through this first down to verse 38. Notice the story. The whole Bible is a story of course. This is what we would call a method narrative. There is a story here in the Bible that tells the story of God in his redemption of his people. It's a glorious story. There's all kinds of little stories that are a part of it and this is one of them that's really significant. Then therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John and then John makes this comment although Jesus himself was not baptizing but his disciples were baptizing. He left Judea and went away into Galilee and he had to pass through Samaria.

So he came to a city of Samaria called Psycar near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph and Jacob's well was there. So Jesus being worried from his journey was sitting thused by the well. It was about the sixth hour about noon. There came a woman of Samaria at the draw water. Jesus said to her, give me a drink. For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Therefore the Samaritan woman said to him, how is it that you being a Jew asked me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered and said to her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you, give me a drink. You would have asked him and he would have given you living water.

There's a play on words here by the way. The word living water is the word that they use for fresh water. In order for Jesus to get fresh water he would have to go all the way down in this well to where the spring was and draw it up. This was a very deep well and he had nothing to draw with. So she says to him in verse 11, sir, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where then do you get this living water? You are not greater than our Father Jacob. Are you? And the answer was yes. You who gave us the well and drank of it, who gave us the well and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle. Jesus answered and said to her, everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst.

But the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life. Couple of three chapters later, Jesus is going to say, come into me all you are thirsty and I'll give you a drink. He was believing the out of his belly will flow rivers of living water. And then John explains, he spoke this of the Holy Spirit who had not yet been given because Christ had not yet been glorified. And you know, as we sit here today, every one of you rested your faith in Christ, you've done that because the Holy Spirit has come into your life and he dwells in you and he's become a well of water that can never be taken from you. And imagine that you have a water source, the water of life is in you.

And Jesus says there in John 7 that not only does it satisfy you, but it flows out of you into the lives of other people to refresh them as well. Verse 15, the woman said to him, sir, give me this water so that I may will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw. And he said to her, go call your husband and come here. Very gentle way of speaking to her and notice what she says, the woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, you have correctly said, I have no husband for you have had five husbands. The one whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly. Now Jesus is doing something here. He's opening her eyes to her great need of this living water. You see this woman who said, Jesus says of her, you've had five husbands and the man that you live with now is not your husband means that five times in her life as an adult, she has been publicly shamed.

In order to divorce her, her husband would have to stand before the community and say, I divorce this woman because she is unfit or unclean or unlovable or in some way not worthy to be my wife. Now imagine what that would be like. Five times in her life in the community she has suffered this and then he says in the man you're living with now is not your husband. She's sleeping with a man in order to survive and that's exactly what she would have to do in that culture. I think this is a spiritually thirsty woman. This woman he wants to open her eyes to the fact that he realizes what her problem really is and what her need really is and he's going to offer her living water and then the woman says, sir, I perceive that you are a prophet and then she does what many people do when he's getting at the heart of the issue when he's actually starting to touch her heart.

She begins to want to have a theological discussion with him over some theological disagreement that the Jews have with the Samaritans about where the place of worship truly is. What place is it on the earth? Where is the holy ground on the earth? Where is the holy space on this globe? Where can you go where God dwells in some space? And so she says, we have been arguing with the Jews for generations. We say the holy space is here, I'm not Gerasim and you Jews say that it's in Jerusalem. And notice how Jesus responds. She says in verse 20, our fathers worshiped in this mountain and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Now they set up a place to worship because they were rejected by the Jews because they were half-reached.

They were the product of an intermarrying of Jews and Gentiles. And so they wouldn't receive them into their fellowship. They couldn't be a part of the worship in Jerusalem. And Jesus responds to her, woman, believe me. An hour is coming when neither in this mountain or in Jerusalem will you worship the father. You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming and notice what he adds. And now he is when the true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and in truth for such people the father seeks to be his worshipers. God is spirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. The woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming.

He was called Christ. When he comes, he will declare all things to us. Jesus said to her, literally, I am the one who's speaking to you, I am. I am this one that you're speaking of who's going to come and declare all things to you. At this point his disciples came and they were amazed that he was speaking with a woman. Yet no one said, what do you seek or why do you speak with her? So the woman left her water pot there at the well and she went into the city and said to the men, interesting and every commentator you read almost on the book of John and they come to this passage, it seems significant that she goes to speak to the men of the city. That was unusual but probably not for her. She was probably well known by all the men in that little community and she says to these men, come see a man who told me all things that I have done.

This is not the Christ is it? They went out of the city and were coming to him. Meanwhile the disciples were urging him saying, rabbi eat but he said to them, I have food to eat that you do not know about. So the disciples were saying to one another, no one brought him anything to eat did he? Jesus said to them, my food is to do the will of him who sent me into accomplish his work. Do not say there are yet four months and then comes the harvest, be whole I say, do you lift up your eyes? Look on the fields for their wife for harvest. If it was true in the day of Jesus I must tell you it's true today. Look on the fields for their wife under harvest. Already he who reaps is receiving wages is in gathering and is gathering fruit for eternal life so that he who so's and he who reaps may rejoice together for in this case the saying is true one so's another reaps.

I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored others have labored and you have entered into their labored. The fruit that Jesus is speaking about in this context is the fruit of the gospel that because he has brought us into relationship with him we have this great privilege of being a part of the harvest and of reaping the fruit of the gospel through us and through our witness. What I want to spend a couple minutes looking at though are those words in verse 23 and 24. An hour is coming and now is now that expression is significant it's a what you would call it a redemptive historical stake that's driven into the ground here. Jesus is saying this is a crucial moment in the flow of redemptive history this is a crucial moment in the plan and purpose of God.

An hour is coming and now is when something huge has changed this is an hour in which the Old Testament prophets spoke about the Old Testament's prophets spoke about a day the Messianic day when the Messiah would come instead of worship limited to a spot in Jerusalem where God came to dwell the Shaqina glory of God came to dwell in the midst of his people he said that the prophet said there is a date that is coming when the knowledge of the Lord is going to spread across the earth like the waters cover the sea that there won't be one spot where you can worship the living and true God but in the days of Messiah worship will cover the earth and everywhere the gospel goes everywhere men give their life women give their life to the spread of the fame of Jesus Christ what happens is communities of worshipers spring up and so today it's an amazing thing I was thinking this past week I get emails from around the world from people on every continent that are telling me about the work of Christ what's going on there what the worship of the people of God is like there.

I was talking to Gary Darnell and Friday night news telling me that he may be going to Beijing to be a part of the work of the gospel there and I thought isn't that an amazing thing that there are people scattered all over this globe and as a result of that because this harvest is white and men are going out to reap in this harvest that there are communities that are worshiping communities like us who come together to break bread and the drink of this cup who worship the living and true God not just in Jerusalem any longer not just in Mount Gerazine which you never that never was the spot of worship but they wanted it to be but now wherever we need if it's in a garage or if it's in a cafeteria or in a church building wherever we need is the people of God because the spirit of God is residing in each and every believer he is a well that springs up to eternal life we come together in worship the living and true God isn't that an amazing thing that the worship God of God is spreading across this entire globe and it continues to advance you know there are some people who do have this mentality there are some movements in the church throughout the history of the church there's some that exist today and people have this attitude it's us for and no more it's this little tiny remnant that are going to really know the truth and are going to really worship God like he's supposed to be worshiped and the fact is the gospel is going out in the most amazing kind of ways all over this globe and it's going out in ways that you would never choose God's using people that you would never choose to use and you know the fact is if we were honest about it the closer we get to one another we think well if I was God I'd never would have chosen you but he has he's chosen you to be a part of this harvest and you know what we can do to be a part of the harvest as we can be a truly worshiping community that worships him in spirit and in truth in spirit and in truth Jesus goes on to say because God is spirit those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth you see God is not something that has to be contained in a holy space somewhere on this earth I want to tell you there are no holy spaces on this earth when it's interesting you know that the the nation of Israel has built themselves to Christians in America primarily as the holy land well there's only one time in the bible it calls that area of the world the holy land and it's called the holy land at that point in scripture because that's where Messiah is pictured as dwelling the only reason any place is holy is because God is dwelling there when God said to Moses take off your shoes because you are standing on holy ground it was because God was right there and you know what this is holy ground and it's holy ground because the spirit of God here it's here among his people but there's no some special holy place that we have to find but wherever we go and we take this gospel and we become worshiping communities the spirit of God is there and we can worship God there in spirit and in truth you know the primary struggle that we have as Christians and this is true you may not be aware of this but the primary struggle that every one of us have is idolatry we're always struggling with idolatry the idols of the heart in Ezekiel 14 the leaders of Israel come to Ezekiel to inquire of the Lord they're down in Babylonian captivity and and they have some questions they want to ask because they're getting a mixed message some of them are saying you some of the prophets the false prophets were telling them don't build houses don't settle down God's going to take you out of captivity well the problem with that is that it had been prophesied by Jeremiah they would be 70 years in captivity you see and yet there were false prophets who were saying no don't settle down don't stay there don't build homes and yet God had been telling them through Jeremiah to settle down build homes be a presence in this city in in Babylon that's what he's told us oh he's coming he's going to break the clouds he's coming back when he's told us that while we are here we are to be a witness we're to be a lampstand we are to have roots in order to be a witness of the gospel and so these leaders come to Ezekiel because they want a word from the Lord and when they come God tells Ezekiel the only thing I have to say to these men is regarding the idols of their heart for they have set up idols in their heart they have set up their iniquity right before their eyes and the idea of that is they're blinded by their idolatry they can't see the truth they can't see the truth of who God is and that's a problem we all face every one of us there's not any Christian that ever existed on the face of this earth it was not struggle with idolatry idolatry isn't the heart of sin that's really what sin is sin is idolatry and of course the fact is that all idols are simply mirrors there's simply mirrors of ourselves we we don't want to come into the rule of God in some area of our life and we set up an idol but that idol is simply a mirror where we're we're simply worshiping ourselves and one way or another that idol may you know be in the form of something material or some for sued in life or something else but that's always the struggle now what Jesus is saying here is because of the nature of God you can't worship God like your worship your idols you see it doesn't matter how much you love something in this life that becomes an idol in your heart you can't give yourself completely to it you can't worship it in spirit and in truth you have to lie to yourself you have to pretend that this thing that you are worshiping and bowing down to and sacrificing for is worth the sacrifice and you know it's not it's not but God is and he says because God is spirit because of the very nature of God because of who he is he says we must worship him in spirit and in truth now in spirit especially in the gospel of John has a very specific marvelous dimension to it in spirit certainly means in the realm of our human spirit in first Corinthians Paul says that it is the spirit of man that knows the things of a man in other words is that capacity that God has built into you because he created you in his image that you have the ability to know to perceive reality to make judgments about reality that deepest part of who you are it goes all the way down into the depths of your being not the surface stuff not just the appearance of things but the very depth of your reality that's the function of the spirit but it also means in the Bible when the Bible talks about doing something in the spirit it doesn't simply mean in your human spirit but it means in your human spirit under the influence and the glory of the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit has come to every one of us who rested our faith in Christ and he has opened up the eyes of the spirit so that we could know God I mean think about this for a second when you came to Christ even though you may not have known very much about the Bible you immediately began to know God in a dimension you had never known him before isn't it an amazing phenomena that when a person comes to Christ they immediately feel like calling God Father the Bible says that's because the spirit that's come to dwell in you is the spirit of adoption whereby we cry out of a father you see he's opened our eyes the eyes of our spirit so that we can see truth and reality so when we worship God we don't have to lie to ourselves we don't have to pretend like we do when we worship idols we worship God we're worship what we worship is truly greater than we can imagine we don't have to market God because he's greater you don't have to package him because he's greater than any man can imagine and so the more that you discover about him the more it motivates you to worship and adore him and that's what Christ came to do Christ came to reveal the Father to us and he sent the spirit so that the spirit would quicken our spirit our human spirit so that in our human spirit through Jesus Christ we could come to see God as he truly is and we see God we worship him isn't that what happens in the Bible every time you have a person who sees God the response is always the same self-deprecation and the elevation of Almighty God the Isaiah sees God in the temple on the when he goes into the temple to worship in Isaiah 6 he sees God the Lord high and lifted up and what does he do he worships him he stops worshipping himself and he worships God I think that's why it's such a beautiful picture of the on the day of Pentecost when Jesus goes when he goes back to his throne and sits at the right hand of the Father and as the evidence that he has been exalted and he rules over all he pours out his spirit and it describes and acts to the coming of the spirit when the spirit first came among his people it pictures it as a wind it was actually a physical manifestation of a wind that blew in among them and they could hear it and feel it and this mighty rushing wind blows in and it blows out all of the haze and the smoke and they begin to see like they had never seen before that's exactly what happens when the spirit of God comes to live with enough and so Jesus said when we worship him because of who he is and what he is because he is spirit we must worship him in spirit and in truth I think that's exactly why the church didn't even have buildings until the third century so that the church would get the lesson that the important thing about the church is not the externals it's not stained glass it's not the liturgy it's not all the accoutrements of religion it isn't a collar or clerical robes it is the living Christ anybody can see clerical robes anybody can see these different elements of worship across hanging on a wall but only a believer can see the living God through the work of the spirit and because the spirit has come to reside within us he's called us to worship him in spirit and in truth in spirit and in truth over and over again in the Bible when it talks about idolatry it refers to them as lies they're all lies it's a pack of lies every idol you've ever worshiped every idol of your heart everything to yourself yourself too like you should only give yourself to God is a lie and it will let you down it'll rust or corrupt or cause you great pain and regret and sorrow but this God that we worship is a God that we can give ourselves to a hundred percent we can love him with all of our heart and soul and mind and strength because of who he is and what he is you will never be disappointed you ever had that experience where you meet somebody new and you really like them and it kind of excites you a new relationship and you want to get to know them and then you begin to get to know them and you start to see all their flaws and foibles and weaknesses and you become kind of disappointed God's not like he's never going to disappoint you and he will never the wonderful thing is that you don't have to worry about disappointing him because he has made you complete and Christ so as we come around this table this morning and break this bread and eat the drink of this cup to reenact the covenant that God has made with us through Jesus Christ we can do it with cleansed consciences I doubt in fact I know without a shadow of a doubt there's nobody here in this room that has not sined since we last took communion the amazing thing is we can come to this table with cleansed conscience because Jesus Christ has poured out his blood for us and so we are told that Hebrews 10 we are to plunge ourselves into the blood of Christ in essence we are to rely on the death and resurrection of Christ as a the cleansing agent and a lie so we come to this table cleansed and prepared and ready to communion with the Lord Jesus Christ and this is for believers this is for those who have come to rest their faith in Jesus Christ when you put this breaded to your mouth you put this cup to your lips and drink this cup it is a testimony that you've entered in to relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ and it's a communion it's a communion meal we communion with Christ and we commune with one another it's what we have in common in a very unique and wonderful way the men are going to come in a moment we're going to break bread and we're going to drink of this cup and celebrate this this covenant that we have entered into that has made us worshipers of the living and true God you're all qualified it's an amazing thing that you are all qualified to worship him in spirit and truth simply because you have rested your faith in Jesus Christ and the spirit has come to reside in you let's pray if you take a moment a silence just come before you in the quietness of your heart if you do need to make things right with him if you've not been living in fellowship with him it's the time just to examine your heart not to dredge up all the sin but simply to say what you ought to say to him the word confession means to agree with God to be honest with him about your life because we're about to come before him and worship him from the depths of who we are let's take this moment to do that our Heavenly Father as we prepare to come around the table of the Lord the Lord's table and the partake of the Lord's suffer this communion meal that he has instituted to remind us of this covenant the covenant that you've made with him that you would give him a people and that same covenant he said that he would purchase this people that you have given him by shedding his blood and paying for their sins in full taking their place as a curse bear allowing his blood to be shed dying of violent death under judgment the judgment that was due us he paid for our sins the payment we ought to have paid and it's because of that that we can come to your table it's because of that that we can come with clean hearts clean starts because of the blood of Christ we pray that the Holy Spirit would communicate today mediate the presence of Jesus in a wonderful way to every heart that as we partake that we would sense the powerful presence of the Lord Jesus Christ at this meal we ask that you would do this in his name and for his glory for his reputation amen if the man would come