A Table of Hope

In this morning’s sermon we considered how lively faith and sacrificial love spring from the hope laid up for us heaven. You’ll recall how I said that this hope doesn’t refer to our activity of hoping, but rather to the content of our hope. The hope laid up for us in heaven is the exalted Christ and the inheritance that He has secured for us: eternal life in the new heavens and the new earth. Yet, this hope is not something wholly future; it is something that we partake of in the present by faith in Christ. And beloved here, at the Lord’s Table, this hope is set before us. For here, Christ, our hope of glory, is set before us. Here at this Table we are given access to the hope laid up for us in heaven. It is for this reason that we have made our ascent into the courts of heaven. One theologian has compared this to what happens in Numbers 13 when the spies bring fruit back to the wilderness from the land of promise. They bring back grapes and pomegranates and figs so that Israel can see and taste and touch the blessings that await them. It’s as if Israel’s future was arriving in their present experience. For by tasting that fruit Israel was able to enjoy the benefits of the Promised Land while remaining in the wilderness. In the same way in the Lord’s Supper Jesus brings us the benefits of the age to come. In the words of Hebrews 6:5 we taste “the good word of God and the powers of the age to come.” In the bread and the wine we see and touch and taste the bounty that awaits us in the marriage supper of the Lamb. It’s as if that future hope is arriving in our present experience. And it is! Beloved of the Lord, feed upon this hope which is laid up for you heaven. Do so believing that one day this hope will be fulfilled in the marriage supper of Lamb. And let your participation in this hope strengthen your faith in Christ and fill your hearts with love for Him and one another!