EMPTY PLACES AT THE FATHER’S TABLE
In the year 1620 a small wooden ship that had been christened the “Mayflower” set said from Plymouth, England with a passenger list of 102 people, bound for the New World colony of Virginia. After 65 days on the open sea they say their first glimpse of their new home but it wasn’t Virginia, it was Cape Cod in what is now called the State of Massachusetts. It was November and the weather was already growing very cold. Since there was no good harbor and no place to land, the ship turned south in search of a place to land.
After weeks of scouting for a suitable settlement area, the Mayflower’s passengers finally landed at Plymouth on Dec. 26, 1620. The Mayflower’s captain, Christopher Jones, had threatened to leave the Pilgrims unless they quickly found a place to land, but the ship remained at Plymouth during the first terrible winter.
Who were these passengers? Most of them were people who were seeking religious freedom and a new life, and a chance to build a better nation. They had become Separatists from the Church of England. Even though the Church of England had broken away from the Roman Catholic Church under the Pope, these Separatists didn’t feel like the break had been enough. They desired even more reform and a greater measure of freedom to worship than what the Church of England would allow.
Because they were poor, working class people, they were unable to purchase tickets to come to the New World so they made a contract with the Plymouth Trading Company. They would settle the new colony and work for the company for 7 years as payment for their land grants and the expenses of sailing to the colony and building a settlement.
When they left England it didn’t take long until problems began to arise. Along with the Separatists, who became known as Pilgrims, there were those who were crew and other passengers who were not religious at all. This second group was called “Strangers”. The Pilgrims and Strangers eventually had to learn to tolerate one another before real trouble could develop and they all agreed to the Mayflower Compact that established their own self-imposed government and laws.
But not all of those who sailed from England with the promise of religious freedom and the New World lived long enough to see their dreams come true. Two people died on the voyage, including one young child who died 3 days before land was sighted and the pilgrims arrived off the coast of the colonies. Due to the extreme winter conditions, lack of proper shelter and low supplies of food and medicine, nearly half of all who had landed in December were dead before the snow melted and spring came.
It is doubtful that any would have survived that second winter had it not been for the friendly Indian tribe that lived in the area. Two Indians, Samoset and Squanto, taught the pilgrims how to grow corn by building mounds of earth and placing a fish under the seed as fertilizer.
And so it was that, after two years, in 1623, the Pilgrims invited the Indians to the first feast of thanksgiving in remembrance of what God had done to help them survive and establish their village after they had first landed on Plymouth Rock.
I’m sure that as they sat around the tables on that first Thanksgiving, that the heart of those who had survived was saddened by the fact that there were so many empty places around the table?
Several had lost wives, some had lost husbands, and then there were the children who didn’t make it either. I wonder how many would have made that journey to establish a new colony and change the course of history if they had known what hardships they would have to face?
Yet, in the face of every adversity, they had persevered and now it was time to give thanks. They lived for religious freedom and now they were going to obey the Word of God by doing what Paul said that we all should do in 1 Thessalonians 5:18, "In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."
I can just imagine that it was hard for them to give thanks to God when they thought of all who had died. It was hard for them to be completely thankful when they weren’t even in the place that they had wanted to be. But they gave thanks anyway – and that’s something that we must all learn to do.
How many of us can say that we are where we intended to be at this point in our lives? Just as it was for those pilgrims and strangers so many years ago, we are set upon a long journey. Our destination is before us and we have such great plans for the future but none of us know the dangers and troubles that lay before us. We are looking for a new home, a new freedom and a new life in a new world.
We are all pilgrims and strangers in this life because this world is not our home. We may not be facing the persecution from other people that those first Pilgrims did, but we are facing a daily battle with the devil and, rest assured, the day is coming when the persecution of Christians will become more real.
Every day there are new pilgrims who begin their own journey through life to the new home that God has prepared for those who love him and serve him. We make our own personal contract with God. We give him our lifetime of love, service and obedience in exchange for our new home and eternal life.
But there are many who begin this journey that, like those pilgrims who never survived the winter, will not stay the course or finish the race of life that is set before them.
Hebrews 12:1, "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us…"
Too many people refuse to lay aside the weight of sin. They allow things to stay in their lives that hold them back and cause them to fall away from God and go back into their old ways. They will live for God while everything is perfect but they don’t have any “staying power” because sin saps their will to fight.
One day soon the church will be taken away from this world and we will be pilgrims and strangers no more. We will sit around our Father’s table in Heaven and I believe that we are going to have the greatest Thanksgiving Feast that will ever be on that day.
All of God’s people will be there. Many of us, like the Pilgrims of long ago, will sit down this week at our Thanksgiving dinner and there will be an empty place at the table. Some have lost mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, wives, husbands, and children whose places will be empty. It will a bitter-sweet time – bitter because of those who are no longer here, and sweet because we know that somehow God has brought us through and for that we must be thankful.
But on that day, in Heaven, when we celebrate with thanksgiving at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, all of God’s people will be there. All of those who have died in Christ will be there. All of us who are caught up in the Rapture will be there. What a grand reunion that’s going to be! Perhaps we might even celebrate this Thanksgiving in glory. Maybe God will come to take his church home before this Thanksgiving Day and then we will really have reason to celebrate. Amen.
God is so good to all of us. He saved our soul, lifted us out of the miry clay of sin, set our feet on the rock, Jesus Christ, and he has given us eternal life. He has supplied our every need and carried us through some mighty rough times. God is faithful and we must always give thanks to him.
But I wonder how many empty places there will be at that table in Heaven? I know that there won’t be any actuality because God already knows how many will be seated at that dinner. Every place is set and the plans are finalized. If your name is written down in the Lamb’s Book of Life and you have been a faithful servant to your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, then your place is set.
But there will be many who are not there. There will be a lot of people who call themselves Christians who won’t be there because no lukewarm, half-heated, and uncommitted servants will be invited. They will be outside the door and they will know what is going on but they won’t be a part of it.
I know that there are going to be a lot of people who attend church who will know what has happened after the church is raptured. They will remember all they have heard about watching and waiting and occupying until Jesus comes but they were too busy to watch for the Lord, to impatient with waiting to persevere to the end and they were left behind to face the coming tribulation. They will remember what the Bible says will be happening to those who are caught away, but they will be left behind because they just didn’t think that Jesus would come when he did and they weren’t prepared.
Like the 5 foolish virgins, their lamps were not trimmed and burning brightly. The light of the gospel in them, and the anointing of the Holy Ghost in their lives had been quenched by disobedience to the Word of God and extinguished by the sin in their heart.
There will be multitudes that thought their way was the right way that won’t be there. They will discover too late that Mohammed, Allah, Buddha, and none of the god’s that man has created, or that Satan has used to deceive them, cannot help them now. They will discover that worship of the saints and praying to anyone other than Jesus Christ and the Father in Heaven accomplished nothing but to sooth a guilty mind, but didn’t touch the sin in their heart.
There will be a vast number who refused to accept Jesus as their only way who won’t be there. The things that they thought would be their savior; the riches, the social programs, the political affiliations, the might and power of their military, their government – nothing will enable them to be at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.
In short, there will be a lot of empty places at the Father’s dinner table.
Right now, even in this church, I wonder how many won’t be at that thanksgiving and wedding feast?
Are we persevering in our service and obedience to Christ and His Word, or have we begun to allow the weight of unrepentant sin to drag us down?
Psalms 69:27-28, "Add iniquity unto their iniquity: and let them not come into thy righteousness. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous."
As we sit around that great table in Heaven, I wonder who won’t be there? I wonder how many, who have known the Lord, trusted in Him, and began that journey to eternal life, will have their names blotted out of the book that contains that names of everyone who is invited to the wedding feast? Will they have allowed the cares of this life, their own pride, little sins that aren’t little sins at all, but big, huge, blatant, black and condemning sins, to keep them back? Will they decide to “live it up” in this life, only to give up that life that is eternal? How many empty chairs will be at that great thanksgiving in Heaven?
People of God, it won’t be long until this world will end. If we are still here for this Thursday, when we all will celebrate Thanksgiving, I wonder if this will be last one that we will all attend on this earth? Even if Jesus doesn’t come for his church, we have no promise of tomorrow, and I wonder how many of us won’t be here for next year?
This Holiday Season time of the year is the worst time of the year for a lot of people. While many are celebrating and enjoying time with family and friends, there are many who have lost a loved one or whose family has been lost in one way or another. For those dear people, the holidays are not happy, joyous times, but times of sadness and depression. It is a fact that suicides increase sharply during the Holiday Season that begins with Thanksgiving and ends with the coming new year. I wonder how many empty chairs there will be at Thanksgiving and Christmas this year because someone decided that life was not worth living any more?
There are families who are in trouble today, and many of them are in the church. Why are they in trouble? It’s not because they don’t love one another. And I don’t believe that the root causes are financial troubles, infidelity, or many of the things that the psychologists try to use as reasons for divorce. I believe that root cause of all divorce is that we hold on to sin in our lives and that sin destroys trust, destroys relationships and eventually kills the love that God has placed within us for one another.
I wonder how many of our families will no longer be families by next Thanksgiving? It doesn’t have to be that way but our pride and love of those secret sins won’t allow us to give them up so I have no doubt that many empty chairs will be around the table by this time next year as our families are ripped apart.
As I close this message this morning I think it would be good for all of us to take stock of our own lives. Is there anything in our lives that would cause us to be missing from that great thanksgiving and marriage feast in Heaven at our Father’s table? Is there a secret sin or a wrong spirit or a bad attitude that will keep us from entering there? Is our name still listed in the Book of Life where the invitation list will be taken, or has our name been blotted out because of sin?
If there is one scripture that I am glad that God put into his word, it is Revelation 7:17, "For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."
I am glad that I will not know, or remember, any of those who I love and care for who do not make it to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. I will remember them no more. I know that I could not enjoy Heaven, or enjoy that great day of thanksgiving to my Lord who saved my soul from hell, if I knew who was in hell and could remember their torments for eternity. Thank God that my knowledge and memory of them will be erased forever.
But I want to see all of us there. I want to see every member of this church sitting around that table. I want to see all of my family and friends seated there. I don’t want any empty chairs around me. I want that to be a glad day, a happy day, and a day to really be thankful for.
The choice of whether you will be there, or not, is not mine to make. It is your choice, and yours alone.
Will your chair be empty at the Father’s table on that great Thanksgiving Day? Is your invitation signed and sealed, and is your name written in the Lamb’s Book of Life? Are you persevering in your walk with Christ?
Let’s pray that all of us will be there. Let’s pray that no chair will be empty around us. I know that many chairs will be missing or empty, but it doesn’t have to be any of ours, nor does it have to the chair for any of those we love. Pray for one another. Love one another. Tell everyone that Jesus is coming soon. Tell everyone that there is coming a great Thanksgiving Day in Glory and that everyone is invited and we hope that none are missing.
Disclaimer:
Due to the large amount of sermons and topics that appear on this site I feel it is necessary to post this disclaimer on all sermons posted. These sermons are original to the author and the leading of the Holy Spirit. While ideas and illustrations are often gleaned from many sources including those at Sermoncentral.com, any similarities and wording, including sermon titles, that may appear to be the same as any other sermon are purely coincidental. In instances where other minister’s wording is used, due recognition will be given. These sermons are not copyrighted and may be used or preached freely. May God richly bless you as you read these sermons. It is my sincere desire that all who read them may be enriched. All scriptures quoted in these sermons are copied and/or quoted from the Authorized King James Version of the Holy Bible.
Pastor James May
