Invited To The Table

The table is where we learn who we are, who we belong to, and whether we are wanted. That is why the Bible keeps returning to meals, invitations, and seats, and why communion still hits so deep when you let it. We start with a simple question: have you ever felt like the kind of person who would never get the invite?

We walk through Jesus at Passover, sharing bread and wine with his disciples and announcing a new covenant. Passover is not just history, it is a lived story of rescue, marked by unleavened bread, bitter reminders, and the cost of deliverance. Then we follow Jesus to Gethsemane, where the “cup” becomes real suffering and real surrender. That tension matters because it shows communion is not a sentimental ritual. It is anchored to the cross, where Jesus chooses to be broken and poured out.

From there, we connect the blood of the lamb, the doorframe, and the meaning of sacrifice to what happens when we take the Lord’s Supper today. Communion is remembrance, but it is also participation: a practiced humility that says, I do not deserve the seat, yet God made a way. If you have been carrying shame, doubt, or the sense that faith is for “better people,” this conversation reframes the gospel as an open invitation purchased at a real cost.

If this helped you, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs the reminder, and leave a review so more people can find the message. What part of the table invitation do you struggle to believe?

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 1:03

Um we are gonna no pressure, we're recording these sessions um so that if somebody you invited missed, um they can hear this subpar mid plus teaching. I know. That's exactly why hey Jason, Jason, can you hear this? Um when you guys registered, did you guys know that the theme was gonna be at the table? Was that pretty clear?

unknown 1:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

Okay. Sick. This is perfect. Um no, but the the the tables the table's set. Um and a little moment of transparency, okay. I'm I am I'm gonna preach with my phone. That's because you sat at many tables. Um

Setting The Theme Of The Table

SPEAKER_00 2:09

growing up, you guys sat at dinner tables, hopefully. Yeah. Anybody's family like strict table dinner time when you were growing up? Okay. How many of you guys, the dinner table is like the center console, like in in the car, or your you know, your lap in the back seat, you know, something like that. Anybody? Um you guys, I mean, I I was gonna say, unless you're homeschooled, I don't know anybody who who homeschooled growing up. You probably here we loud and proud, Emily. You probably still sat at a table for lunchtime. Yeah, sometimes, you know, or the you know, the armrest of the couch or you know, a desk, maybe, I don't know. Um God. After he initiates the very first communion ever, he's having Passover with his disciples, and they have all the they it just made me think. I don't have not unleavened bread, but gluten-free. So any of you guys need gluten-free, I'm so sorry. Um Jesus was at the Passover meal with his disciples. The the last Passover meal he would take while he was on earth. And at that meal, there was bread, there was wine, but instead of just commemorating Moses and what God had done with the Israelites, parting the sea and leaving Egypt and the blood on the door frames where the literal, not the angel of death, the destroyer would pass over the houses that had the blood. Jesus says, I'm initiating a new covenant. And covenant just means not even an agreement or a contract, but you're gonna be my people, I'm gonna be your God. And he says, There's gonna be a new covenant, and

The Last Passover And A New Covenant

SPEAKER_00 4:03

he he literally breaks, he breaks the bread. He breaks the bread, it's the first communion. Hours later, he's in the Garden of Gethsemane. Um, seven of his disciples, seven of his disciples stay back in a little area. He takes three, no, eight, eleven, one's already gone to betray him, okay, Judas. Um, so there's eight. He takes three a little bit further, and then he leaves them, it says a ster a stone's throw, and he falls to his knees, and he's in he's in so much, he's in so much angst, um, in really like internal peril. He he starts to like blood comes out of the pores of his skin where where sweat comes out. That's that's how angst he is over this moment. And he says, God, if there is a way, Father, if there is a way, take this cup from me. And by cup, he means you're calling me to the cross. Uh is there a is there a cross in here? Huh?

Gethsemane And The Cup Of Suffering

SPEAKER_00 5:16

There it is. Yes. If there's another way, please give me another way. But if not, your will, not my will. Jesus knows that at this table, priority number one is Dylan. It's Seth. It's Billy. I don't know all of your names. Um, it's Dawson. Hate. This isn't the Billy memorization show, sorry. Um what is most important to Jesus in that moment? There's a chance for people who never thought that they could be at the table. And this is the moment that I make the invite. And so he t he says, take this body that's been broken. And meals in scripture in scripture aren't just meals. Passover, if you guys have ever eaten a Passover meal, the Seder, as it as it is in Hebrew language, the Jewish culture. Um there's lamb. There's there's the wine. There's a hand, well, there's unleavened bread. And you get you, do you know why it's unleavened bread? It's not because they were gluten-free. And not not time for it to bash. Yes! Not to not to bash the gluten-free people. I'm so sorry. I know that's a health thing. Um, they didn't have time for the yeast, they didn't have time for it to rise because they were exiting. They were exodusing. But then there was a series, and usually it depended on where you were at and

Why Passover Food Tells A Story

SPEAKER_00 7:18

what herbs that you had available to you, but the herbs were bitter. Because I don't know if you guys knew, but six of the plagues, six of the plagues really net really affected Israel, except the one the most important that did not affect them, if they chose to paint the blood of the lamb on their door frames, the tragedy of the firstborn. Hold that thought, sorry. Um because all up to that point, for guilt and sin offering, it required a life, it required blood. And at that point, it was bring your most perfect lamb. Anybody in 4H? Anybody do oh, I thought maybe there'd be one. Um, you know, your grand prize winner, you're gonna sell them for two thousand dollars or whatnot. Um bring your spotless lamb, sacrifice him, him, literally, male, about two years old. Take the blood, paint on your door frames, and the destroyer tonight, when it passes through all of Egypt,

Blood On The Doorframe And The Lamb

SPEAKER_00 8:49

will pass over your home and will spare your firstborn. But those who do not, the firstborn will be taken. The in the firstborn, they were the ones that inherited everything. They were the I guess the perfect child. Anybody the firstborn? You are the perfect child. Um, what Jesus did was he said, I'm gonna take, I'm gonna take the Passover meal, and I'm gonna radically revise it to something that's closer to what it needs to accomplish. Passover meal was to accomplish remembrance. Communion, the Lord's Supper, the Last Supper, was not just to accomplish remembrance, it was to accomplish participation. By participation, I mean when I take communion, the experience that I have, it doesn't feel like I die and then I come back to life again, but it's for communion, what it feels like for me is it feels like, you know what? I need to come sit in my seat and just humble myself because there's a God who broke himself on the cross and gave his blood for me. And so what Jesus tells them is hey, what I'm doing on the cross, I'm taking the envelope, I'm writing Hayden's name on it, I'm putting it in the envelope, I'm sealing

Communion As Participation Not Just Memory

SPEAKER_00 10:31

it, I'm gonna give it to a messenger, and I'm gonna send it to Hayden. I'm gonna say, Hayden, my blood on this cross has made a way for you to sit at the table with God, with me. And it's the only way. There is no other way. There, there's no, you come pick first class. No, first class has already been chosen for you, so come out of coach. Come out of coach. When I literally, when I take communion, that that is a lot of what's going through my mind is God, there's so much wrong with me, and there's so much good from you that you have paved the way for me. I I deserve worse than coach. I deserve to be down with the checked bags. I deserve to be like Tom Cruise in that movie where he's you know strapped to the plane. That's what we deserve. I am I am one of the ones who should not have an invite to the table. And so many of us, maybe you've come here this weekend, and maybe for the first time you're like, I didn't know

The Only Way To The Table

SPEAKER_00 11:38

that I was invited into this relationship. I didn't know exactly what he did to pay the way for me. Maybe you feel like the person who's never going to get the invite. Or maybe for some of you, you're like me, and every single day you need a reminder that you're not first class. Nobody's first class. The only one who was first class gave up his seat, he broke his body on the cross, and he paid the way for our sins, because our sins are what keep us from the table. And so he gives them this parable because most of them in the room have no idea, most of them have no idea the invitation that's on the table, and they don't realize just what an opportunity it is to dine with the host. And he's saying the host is the God, creator of the universe, and he's provided a table, and everybody's invited, and the people who expect it the most, they're losing their invitation, and the people who expected the least, they're gonna flood the doors and the seats. I'm gonna pray. Um come up when you're ready. You can take a piece of bread, grab a cup, return to your seat, and when you're ready, you can take communion. And then when we're done, we're gonna be led in worship. God, thank you so much for tonight.

When The Expected Guests Miss It

SPEAKER_00 13:19

Thank you for what you did on the cross to prepare this table for us to know you, to pay for our sins so that we can know you. You broke your body, you poured out your blood. And so when we take these, we're acknowledging that we're broken and we're acknowledging that we need your life inside of us. Thank you for the cross. It's in Jesus' name. All God's people said.