Setting the Table, Part 5: Building a Bridge

Victory Life Church — Sunday, October 6, 2024

Introduction

I care deeply about my country and the direction we are moving culturally. I definitely want to see this country salvaged from self-destruction. In a hyper-partisan culture, any comment politically will sound partisan to most who hear it. Our apprenticeship to Jesus should affect every area of our lives personally and culturally. We are citizens of the kingdom of God, which is our primary citizenship, but as citizens of the kingdom of God, we are also citizens of a nation on earth, and we are called to be vessels of God’s kingdom to bring transformation to this nation. How so?

Christian writer and blogger Tim Challies wrote about the three marks of a moral revolution (January 17, 2017), as reported in Theo Hobson’s book Reinventing Liberal Christianity:

1. 1. What was universally condemned is now celebrated.
   2. What was universally celebrated is now condemned.
   3. Those who refuse to celebrate are condemned.

Tim leaves us with a question. He says, “Decide for yourself if this is, indeed, a moral revolution.”

In the midst of a cultural revolution, a post-Christian nation, how might we be citizens and vessels of God’s kingdom? The Gospel of Jesus and His kingdom is political for sure. But in what way? Our politics is downstream from culture, and reshaping culture in the midst of a cultural revolution is not merely being engaged politically. The American church is at a hinge moment: how will we live in the midst of a cultural revolution?

Breaking Bread

Acts 2:42 (ESV) And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

Long before Christianity reshaped national cultures, the church did not try to launch a large-scale revolution. The early church ended up radically transforming cultures, though they had no political power, and they were within a system where they had no say in the political structures. How did they do it? Acts 2:42 shares the four things they were devoted to that built the foundation for cultural transformation. One of these pillars was “the breaking of bread.” This phrase has a double meaning: it did mean the “Table of the Lord” (communion, the Eucharist), but it also simply meant sharing meals together. In the first church, a full meal together as the church was the context of communion. However, though we have made communion into a symbolic action in our corporate gatherings, there is still a “sacramental” element to our shared meals together. The shared meal of the church is a powerful witness of God’s incredible generosity and hospitality.

Acts 2:42, 46-47 (NLT) 42 All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer…. 46 They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity—47 all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.

In the first century, “Table Fellowship” was revolutionary and unique to Christianity. In no other home in the ancient world at this time would you find people of such diversity sitting together for a meal. This was such a powerful witness of God’s grace, redeeming sinners from all sorts of different backgrounds and from all sorts of bondage to sin. What made the church able to sit together in shared (covenant) meals was not what they had in common in the flesh (skin color, national background, political beliefs, etc.) but the body and blood of Jesus. This is so important. Jesus is the basis of a church community and the shared table. The blood of Jesus that has justified us before a holy God is what unites the church around a shared meal, not anything of the flesh.

Colossians 3:11 (NLT) In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.

Only in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ was this true when Paul wrote it. This was completely unheard of in the ancient world. The Western value of unity within diversity is completely founded on the church. The church had massive cultural influence by first being completely countercultural. It was not just the morality of the first church that transformed culture; it was the radical table fellowship that revolutionized the modern world.

The early church’s table fellowship reshaped the world’s understanding of what makes for a strong community. The church was convinced that the blood of Jesus and the forgiveness of sins were so transforming that they were the strongest basis for a unified community, not nationality, skin color, or cultural background. That unity was expressed at a shared meal.

I am convinced that our shared meals are revolutionary in the midst of our current cultural revolution. I absolutely advocate for voting in accordance with biblical values, publicly supporting godliness, and resisting outright evil that is taking root in our public systems. However, what is just as important and even more transformational is an equal and greater commitment to sharing meals together and leaving open seats for those who are far from God. We seem to have regressed culturally to a pre-Christian culture as a whole (not necessarily in our neighborhoods). Therefore, the way in which we might be able to revolutionize our culture today could be the same practices that reshaped the world of the first few centuries originally: a shared meal with an open seat.

Building Bridges

An open seat at a community table of hospitality is like building a bridge that invites those far from God to walk across into His love. Yes, there can feel like a chasm between our cultural moment and the holiness of God. Instead of self-righteously condemning those across that chasm, stuck in their sin, we are called to build bridges. We cannot reduce the entrance into the kingdom of God, the threshold of forgiveness is repentance. But the church is called to bring that threshold closer to people without compromising that threshold. This is what it means to build bridges, bring the threshold as close to people as possible, invite people in, and celebrate when they cross it.

Hospitality builds a bridge through personal ministry and invitation.

LOVE for people must be our motivation for all personal ministry. Truthfully, love should be our motivation for all actions in our lives, loving God and loving people. This is an essential aspect of being an apprentice of Jesus. To love someone means to will the good for them and act upon it. This is God’s love for us; He wills good for us and acts upon it. Thus, “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

Loving people means willing the good for them and acting upon it.

Loving people does not mean tolerating or condoning sin and sinful behavior. Loving someone means for their good you can speak the truth of sin’s damage to our lives and relationships, but it also means not rejecting the person or refusing to acknowledge their value because of their sin. To will the good for someone who is stuck in sin includes being clear about sin’s effects but equally clear about Christ Jesus’ abundant forgiveness, mercy, and grace.

Romans 2:4–5 (NLT) 4 Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?

5 But because you are stubborn and refuse to turn from your sin, you are storing up terrible punishment for yourself. For a day of anger is coming when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

In the context of this verse, there is a reality of sin’s deadly effect on people’s lives. There is a reality to the downward spiral of self-destruction and judgment that sin and idolatry and sexual perversion have on lives and cultures. There is a reality of God’s righteous, final judgment on sin and those who have hardened their hearts because of it. But this is the setting where God’s kindness is manifested. His kindness extends patience and warning to those in this downward spiral with the intent to bring them to repentance. His kindness brings the threshold of the kingdom, repentance, as close to us as possible and invites us over the threshold, invites us to turn from our sin. And just because there are those whose hearts are so hardened that they will not repent does not mean God ceases His kindness. He remains kind and good despite the likelihood of many rejecting Him. The same goes for us.

Hospitality loves people according to God’s kindness and goodness.

We are called to love people extraordinarily. We are called to see people as valuable and worth salvaging. We should be so consumed with God’s love that it overflows in loving others, especially those stuck in sin. Just because there is a likelihood people will reject the Lord and harden their hearts in sin does not mean we cease extending God’s kindness and goodness. We are not in a position to judge other people’s worthiness or the hardness of their hearts. Hospitality is loving people according to God’s kindness. This is building a bridge for people.

Luke 19:1-10 — Jesus and Zacchaeus

Luke 19:1–10 (ESV) 1 He entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. 3 And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature. 4 So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. 5 And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. 7 And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” 8 And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” 9 And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

We value people because they are valuable to God, not because they are potential church members. Love, genuine love, creates the conditions for transformation. We are called to extend that love by setting the table of hospitality, creating space for people to encounter Jesus. Will some people reject the offer and harden their hearts in their sins? Most definitely. But we keep loving people, setting tables, and inviting them to come experience God’s kindness and goodness. Because of this, many will come to repentance and experience the salvation of God.

Who are we to reject Jesus for people? We reject Jesus for people by not witnessing of Him. Has God’s love had any impact on your life? Then who are you to keep that transformation from those in your life who need it? Who am I to keep the salvation of Jesus away from people whom God has placed in my path and life?

Conclusion

I would say that we are in a cultural and moral revolution. I would definitely say that what was universally condemned (sin) is now celebrated, and what was universally celebrated (morality) is now condemned. Now, certainly, those who refuse to celebrate sin are being condemned, as well as persecuted. Without reversing course, that will move toward execution. In history, this has been the case. How do we reverse course? Be kind and set the table. It’s how Jesus did it.

People will respond in many different ways. Just because some harden their heart does not mean we should stop being kind and hospitable. God has not stopped being kind to us or to them. Just because people will choose to harden their hearts and come under judgment does not mean God is no longer kind and merciful to them up to that point. Let’s be the church that reverses the course of our culture by kindness, love, and hospitality.

 

Citations

Tim Charlie’s, “Marks of a Moral Revolution” Challies.com, accessed September 5, 2024,  https://www.challies.com/final-call/final-call-january-17/

Butterfield, Rosaria Champagne. The Gospel Comes with a House Key: Practicing Radically Ordinary Hospitality in Our Post-Christian World (p. 51). Crossway. Kindle Edition.