Preacher: Jeremiah Fyffe

1. It is important to give people the opportunity to explain who they think Jesus is.
2. It is only when the word of God is opened as a means of understanding our journey, it is only as the story of God according to his own word about himself is opened that we begin to understand the story of our own lives.
3. Jesus seems to believe that the Word of God, the Bible, is the only sufficient means by which we can know, understand and believe in Jesus.

Deuteronomy 6:6–7
And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

1 Corinthians 15:3–4
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,

Colossians 3:16
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Tim Chester - Meal with Jesus
Christ doesn’t begin with a resurrection pronouncement. He begins with a question: “What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk? . . .” (Luke 24:17). He gives them space to tell their story, to share their pain, to speak their disappointment. Luke captures the drama of it: “And they stood still, looking sad”.

Preacher: Jeremiah Fyffe

1. v36 - THE INVITATION TO THE TABLE
2. v37 - AND BEHOLD, A WOMAN …
3. v37-38 - THE INSTRUMENTS OF HOSPITALITY
4. v39 - SELF-RIGHTEOUS MUTTERING
5. v40 - JESUS HAS SOMETHING TO SAY
6. v41-42 - TWO DEBTORS AND A MONEY LENDER
7. v43-46 - FORGIVENESS AND LOVE
8. v48-49 - POINTED PROCLAMATION OF GRACE
9. v50 - GO IN PEACE
10. WITH WHOM DOES JESUS FELLOWSHIP?
11. WHAT DOES FAITH LOOK LIKE?
12. MEALS AS COMMUNITY IN THE COMMUNITY

Tim Chester - A Meal with Jesus
Prostitution, if that was her business, is a commercial parody of hospitality.

Kent Hughes
Consider her hair. It was her womanly glory, but she loosed it to wipe the Savior’s feet. Her comeliness was devoted to Jesus’ glory.

Luke 1:46-48
My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;

What a glorious community of faith: Mary, the mother of Jesus, and this woman of the city.

It is a story about costly grace before it is a story of thanksgiving and love.

The first test for the assurance of faith is whether or not you actually love the Jesus who is not afraid to call you a sinner, and who is also sure to forgive you of that very sin.

1 John 4:19–21
We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Come Though Fount
Come Thou Fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.

Oh, to grace how great a debtor,
Daily I'm constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wand'ring heart to Thee.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Christian community is not an ideal we have to realize, but rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate. … we enter into that life together with other Christians, not as those who make demands, but as those who thankfully receive …. We do not complain about what God does not give us; rather we are thankful for what God does give us daily.

Tim Chester - A Meal with Jesus
Our meals express our doctrine of justification. It’s possible to articulate an orthodox theology of justification by faith, but communicate through your meals a doctrine of justification by works.

Preacher: Bill Dumphy

1. v27-28 - Jesus calls Levi
2. v29-30 - Levi makes a great feast and invites “a large company of tax collectors and others”, but the Pharisees don’t like it,
3. v31-32 - Jesus explains that he eats and drinks with sinners because it is those who are sick who need a physician,
4. v33-35 - Jesus goes on to explain why his disciples don’t fast,
5. Grace turns everything upside down

What are the implications of grace turning everything upside down?

• We’ve been personally invited to come as we are to the table and extended the ultimate grace in salvation. This guarantees us a seat at the lamb’s supper table when we are with him in glory.

What are the implications of grace turning everything upside down?

• We are instruments of grace to those apart from Christ. We are to invite them to the lamb’s table and more literally to our table.

1. TIL WE EAT AGAIN
2. THE SON OF MAN CAME EATING AND DRINKING
3. THE TABLE IN THE SCRIPTURES
4. THE LINK BETWEEN THE TABLE AND GRACE
5. TELL ME ABOUT YOUR TABLE
6. AN INVITATION TO DINE

1 Corinthians 10:31
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

The end of salvation is “reclining at table” with God (Luke 13:29).

Soma Music - King of the Ball

Gather 'round for the feast.
All creation, man and beast.
At the center of it all,
sits the king of the ball.
Play the trumpets and melodies.
Bang the drums and your tamborines.
Break the bread and pour the wine.
Drink it in and have a good time.
Oh what a party. Oh what a feast.
A beautiful circus of crazies and freaks