Title: What Happens at the Table Does Not Stay at the Table
Text: Luke 24:44-56
Thesis: God’s grace is God-given, Spirit-driven, and entrusted to us.
Introduction
I’m sure you’ve seen the “What Happens Here” marketing campaign put out by the Las Vegas tourism people… This is one I can show in church.
Project What Happens in Vegas Clip - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrRipLBh6jo
Originally the marketerss were trying to appeal to hardworking blue-collar Americans who could get away for a few days to do some really fun things like indoor skydiving. However they found that what played best during this time of recession was the idea that whar consumers wanted was to go to Las Vegas where they could sample pleasures unavailable at home.
The “What Happens” ads played to Las Vegas’ reputation as a party town where visitors could do stuff they would never do otherwise without folks back home ever finding out. (Tamara Audi, Vegas Tries Luck with Old Slogan, The Wall Street Journal, May 13, 2009)
The ad is a not so subtle, smirk, wink, and knowing-nod that says, “We will be discrete about your indiscretions. Don’t worry, what happens here stays here.”
While it may be human nature to hide some things, what happened at the table when Jesus shared a Tilapia fillet with his disciples following his resurrection, was never intended to be kept secret. Quite to the contrary, Jesus essentially said, “What happens at the table does not stay at the table.” This was a story that was intended to be told and retold down through the centuries.
This is the first bit of news Jesus wants us to take from the table.
I. The grace of God is for everyone everywhere.
“With my authority, take this message of repentance to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem: There is forgiveness of sins for all who turn to me.” Luke 24:44-47
Notice the intent of the word “all.” The message is to be taken to “all” nations and forgiveness extended to “all” who turn to God. “All” means each and every nation and each and every person in every nation. “All” means barring none.
A. God’s grace is all-inclusive – “take this message to all nations… there is forgiveness of sins for all who turn to me.”
In addition to specifying that God’s grace is all-inclusive, Jesus also suggests a strategy for making God’s grace known:
B. God’s strategy is all-expansive. “beginning in Jerusalem…”
The phrase “beginning in Jerusalem” triggers in our minds this account as recorded in Acts 1:8 where Jesus said, “When the Holy Spirit comes you will receive power and will tell people about me everywhere – in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
The image Jesus invokes here is that of dropping a pebble into a pool of water. Ultimately Jesus wants the whole pool to hear about God’s grace. But the news begins where the pebble first hits the water and then what follows is the ripple effect. It begins in Jerusalem and then the ripple extends to the immediate area of Judea and then the ripple spreads to envelope Samaria and beyond until the ripple has spread across the entire pool of water.
The idea is that this grace is for everyone everywhere.
The Big Tent approach in politics seeks to attract people with diverse viewpoints rather than attract people along single-issue litmus tests or rigid ideology. People in a Big Tent are pragmatic in their approach and believe that together they can advance their core issues even if they disagree on other issues. Big Tent politics is about bringing as many people into or under the tent as possible… even if they are radically diverse.
It seems to me that God is the ultimate proponent of the Big Tent. Paul wrote, “All who have been united with Christ in baptism have been made like him. There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female. For you are all Christians” (Galatians 3:27-28) In Colossians 3:11 he continued the thread when he wrote, “In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric or civilized, slave or free. Christ is all that matters and he lives in all of us.”
Pastor Craig Gross, founder of xxxchurch.com and the Las Vegas ministry they call The Strip Church takes the concept of Big Tent seriously. He and his volunteers attend adult entertainment tradeshows where they buy a booth, wear t-shirts that say, “Jesus Loves Porn Stars” and hand out bibles. He says, “We will do anything short of sin to reach people for Christ.” (Leadership Interview with Craig Gross, Salvation on the Strip, Leadership, May 15, 2009)
Jim Cymbalas, pastor of Brooklyn Tabernacle says the number one sin in America is not internet pornography or that the divorce rate in the church is the same as that of the country at large… the number one sin in America is that its pastors and leaders are not on their knees crying out to God, ‘Bring us the drug addicted, bring us the prostitutes, bring us the destitute, bring us the gang leaders, bring us those with AIDS, bring us the people nobody else wants, whom only you can heal, and let us love them in your name until they are whole.” (Mark Buchanan, Messy, Costly, Dirty Ministry, Leadership, May 15, 2009)
The grace of God is Big Tent Grace. The grace of God is all-inclusive and all-expansive. The grace of God begins right here at the doorstep of Heritage and ripples out into the neighborhood, across the Denver metro area, the state of Colorado, the United States, and to the furthest, most remote places and peoples on the planet.
To think the needy single mother and her children in this neighborhood are more important than the single mother and her children at Sheila Massey’s door in India is spiritual near-sightedness. And to think that the single mother and her children at Sheila Massey’s door in India are more important than the single mother and her children on our door is spiritual far-sightedness. God is a global God and Jesus is a global Savior.
One of the most disturbing conversations I have had in the last nine years happened right here in my study. A man came to see me and shared his worthy desire to share his faith. After listening for a while I asked him if he knew his neighbors and he said he didn’t especially like and did not talk to any of his neighbors. A global understanding of the Great Commission is to grasp the concept that the grace of God begins at our doorstep and ripples out to everyone everywhere.
If you take nothing else from this talk take this: The grace of God is for everyone everywhere. Jesus made it very clear that what Jesus said at the table with his disciples was not to stay at the table.
In my thesis I stated, “God’s grace is God-given and Spirit-driven.”
II. The impetus for conveying this grace is the Holy Spirit.
“And now I will send the Holy Spirit, just as my Father promised. But stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from heaven.” Luke 24:49
Jesus knew that he had handed his disciples a tall order. He handed eleven guys the task of taking the saving grace of God in Jesus Christ to every person on the planet.
Years ago Bonnie and I were pleased when some friends invited us over to their home for dinner. We were serving neighboring churches and we were enjoying getting to know them. We arrived and enjoyed a deliciously prepared dinner and an evening of relaxed conversation. Then they said, “We would like to share something with you that has been a big boost for us.” I knew immediately that we had been set up for an AMWAY presentation.
This comes straight from the AMWAY Global website: “AMWAY Global has a business model that is based on the AMWAY Business Owner’s Compensation Plan which is a low-risk, low cost business opportunity that opens the door to anyone. AMWAY Business rewards you for selling products and for sponsoring others who do the same.” What a great strategy. Each one reach one and eventually every household on the planet is using L.O.C. Multi-Purpose Cleaner – “The world’s most multipurpose cleaner.” (http://www.amway.com/en/about-amway/business-model)
Interestingly, Jesus did not say, “Okay boys, let’s gather in a circle and chant, ‘Each one reach one! Each one reach one! Each one reach one!’”
Jesus knew those guys were ill-equipped to do what he had asked them to do. Jesus knows we are ill-equipped to do what he has asked us to do. Jesus knows that reaching the world for Christ is a God-sized undertaking and as long as we approach it from a man-sized perspective, we will never be effective in reaching either the person on our doorstep or the Fulani Tribesman herding his flock across the 3.5 million square miles of the Sahara in northern Africa.
I can just see the disciples gathering up their packets of Four Spiritual Laws and Steps to Peace with God, their demographic studies, their bulk-mailing permits and telemarketing lists, and heading for the door, and then Jesus says, “Whoa… wait a minute. I want you to just stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from heaven.”
My intent is not to denigrate any vision for reaching the world for Christ or any of the multitude of strategies we may use to do it. My intent is to make a large and important point that we likely overlook. Jesus said in John 15,”A part from me you can do nothing.” Jesus said in Matthew 19:26, in reference to the unlikelihood of some persons being able to become followers of Christ, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible.” The possibilities lie in the power of God.
The idea is: The impetus for making Christ known does not originate with us… we are not the instigators. God is the mover and shaker who begins this work in us and then through us. Both localizing and globalizing grace is a God-sized undertaking and Jim Cymbalas is correct when he says we ought to be praying that God will bring us the people and the opportunities for the work he has in mind for us. However, in keeping with the spirit of "GO" in the great commission we might add to our prayer that God will lead us to the people and the opportunities for the work he has in mind for us.
Thus far we have gleaned from the text two truths:
1. The grace of God is for everyone everywhere.
2. Grace is God-given and Spirit-driven.
And we have come to understand that extending the grace of God to all people everywhere is a God-sized undertaking. However, having said that, God’s plan is to do it through people.
III. The legacy of grace is extended through invigorated Christians.
While Jesus was blessing them, he left them and was taken up to heaven. They worshiped him and then returned to Jerusalem filled with great joy. And the spent their time in the temple praising God. Luke 24:51-53
As we come to the final verses of our text we see that Jesus did two things:
A. Jesus blessed his followers.
B. Jesus left his followers.
The departure of Jesus did not diminish their joy and perhaps even invigorated their sense of purpose in the making of grace known to the world.
Jesus had entrusted them with a global mission to share the grace of God to everyone everywhere and Jesus had promised to empower them for the daunting task that would be that of the Church for centuries to follow… then he left.
They obviously would not have been terribly invigorated or motivated by any of this had they been left with a dead Christ, embalmed and all wrapped up in grave clothes and lying in repose in a grave on the other side of town. But that was not the case. The Christ they saw buried had risen from the dead, he had appeared to them, eaten a piece of boiled fish at the table with them earlier that evening, and now he had blessed them and ascended into heaven.
Conclusion
It is an exciting thing to be part of God’s plan, a plan that empowers and equips us to make the forgiveness of God and the hope of eternal life known to everyone everywhere.
On Friday The Denver Post ran a brief Associated Press piece about a First lady Michelle Obama and how she misses private life and revealed a little bit of advice passed on to her by her successors: Go to Camp David often.
She spoke wistfully of Camp David as “a one place you can go where you feel a level of freedom and an ability to breathe.” In comparing her private life and her high profile public life she said, “It’s a lot easier to live your life when everything you do doesn’t have a consequence.” (First lady misses a private life, The Denver Post / The Associated Press, May 22, 2009)
Imagine what it must be like to live nearly every moment of every day under the scrutiny of a watching world. Imagine living in a glass house. Imagine the media asking you about the unseen moments of your life. But also imagine the great honor and pride she must feel in knowing everything she does is of public importance and consequence.
Everything we do is also of public importance and eternal consequence. Feeding the hungry, giving a cup of cold water to the thirsty, providing clothing for those who have no clothes, welcoming the stranger, caring for those in prison and their families, and visiting the sick matters. Providing food baskets and summer school tuition for Secrest families matters. Welcoming the neighborhood children and their families into our church for Crocodile Dock VBS matters. Sharing in ministry with the Lewis’s as they offer hospitality to international students and invite them to study the life of Jesus matters. Sharing in the ministry of Sheila Massey as she offers one on one spiritual counsel to poor women in India matters. Sharing in the global ministry of the Covenant and being there in that tiny medical clinic on the edge of the Saharan Desert where Karen Benson serves nomadic Fulani peoples matters. Sharing in the ministry of Sue Brodish as she nurtures little German pre-schoolers matters. Getting to know your neighbors by name and engaging them in conversations and demonstrating the love of Jesus to them matters.
It may never have occurred to you that everything you and I do is of eternal importance and consequence. The public trust Jesus gave to his followers is of greater ultimate consequence than any other public
trust. It is our honor to take from the table God’s legacy of grace.
It is our honor to take from the table this legacy of God’s grace in our time.
• God grace is for everyone everywhere.
• God’s grace is God-given and Spirit-driven.
• God’s grace is extended to everyone everywhere through us.
