Bible Study Notes: Prayer: Living on the Lord's Table
Living on the Lord’s Table
QUESTION: According to your time and money, what do you consider to be the driving force of your life?
QUESTION: What is it that you feed on to find strength and encouragement?
Jesus told His disciples,
John 4:34 “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.
I pray that all of us would feel this way, but we often do not. We are distracted by our sinful desires. Pain can often blind us to the goodness of God. We find ourselves wanting more of the world and less of Christ. How do we find new strength to enjoy serving God and resisting sin?
2 Pet. 1:3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence,
That knowledge is held within the pages of the Bible. Paul promised to Ephesians,
Eph. 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,
How is it that we enjoy these spiritual blessings? Are we simply to try harder? Do more spiritual activities throughout our day? God in his kindness is the one who sustains us, grows us, and gives us grace each and every week.
Col. 2:6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord [which is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone], so walk in him,
To walk means to live this way, do life this way. During the Reformation, the Reformers sought to help their congregations understand how to walk by faith in the midst of suffering. A helpful phrase to summarize this biblical teaching was the phrase “means of grace.” These are channels through which we can feed upon His grace that sustains and strengthens our faith. One of those means is the preaching of the Word. Faith comes by hearing the word of Christ (Rom 10:17). The second means God uses is prayer. There is a third means that God has provided a way for us to receive His blessings; it is His table.
Paul in his warnings against idolatry writes to the church at Corinth,
1Cor. 10:16 The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?
1Cor. 10:17 Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.
To participate in something means to have a connection to its purpose and benefits. What was the purpose and benefit of the cross?
- Forgiveness of sins
- The full righteousness of Christ given to us
- Final and ultimate resurrection
God designed His church to be the place where grace comes to His people week after week to help encourage them, strengthen them, and rest from the chaos of the world. Week after week we receive more of His grace by means of the preached word, praying together, and according to 1 Cor 10, but means of the table. Listen to how the early Christians responded to their new found faith:
Acts 2:42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
QUESTION: How would you evaluate your life in comparison to these promises from Scripture? Do you devote yourselves to the same means the believers in Acts did? Why or why not?
We sacrifice so much in our lives to find what is our hearts desire. Then we wonder why we are unhappy, without hope, and discouraged. Christ has given us our purpose in life and promised we would find full satisfaction and hope. God’s will is that we love others as He has loved us by spreading the good news of the gospel. We find ourselves distracted and slaves to other means that do not provide us the blessings of the Father. We become cold, dry, and distant. We seek our own means or the promises of the world. To fulfill the will of the Father, we also have the strength of the Father by means of the Spirit. The Spirit uses the Word heard, prayed, and tasted on the table to strengthen us.
Many Christians today are spiritually weak and struggling. They are told to try harder at being spiritual. To discipline themselves. Be more organized. I would agree! Remove any distractions that would keep you from God’s means. Discipline your life in such a way that nothing would prevent you from receiving from the Lord week after week.
Col. 2:18 Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind,
Col. 2:19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.
God grows us with HIS power. He uses His means within His body. I think we as a church need to step back and ask ourselves if we truly trust the Bible, why are we not trusting his means?
QUESTION: How can we help each other trust the means of Grace week after week to strengthen and grow us in our faith?
QUESTION: Why are we so attracted to “spiritual self-improvement” instead of a community resting in the means of grace?
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PRAISE, PRAYER, AND CONFESSION:
What can you offer to the Father in glory? What is a sin you need to confess?
What is a burden we can carry?
What can we take to our Father in prayer?