A Table of the Kingdom

In this morning’s sermon we considered Jesus’ coming in judgment upon Jerusalem in AD 70 as well as His coming again on the Last Day. And both of these comings inform our celebration of this Table. For, of course, we gathered here on the Day of the Lord in the New Jerusalem to proclaim the death of our Lord until He comes again. You are seated here in the kingdom of God as a result of Christ’s shaking of the heavens and earth and sending of His messengers to call His chosen ones from the four corners of the earth. In Luke 13 we read of how Jesus was going through the cities and villages of Israel telling them to enter the kingdom through the narrow gate. Then he describes a scene of judgment where Israel sees, “Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God…They will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down in the kingdom.” This is the kingdom that Luke later describes in this way, “And I bestow upon you a kingdom, just as My Father bestowed one upon Me, that you may eat and drink at My table in My kindgom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (22:29-30). You see your presence at this Table is an exercise of Christ’s kingly authority and indicates that you share in that authority. You are the kings and queens, the princes and princesses, of the new creation. In putting all things under the feet of Christ, beginning with Jerusalem and Rome, he is putting all things under your feet as well, as Paul said to the Romans, “And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly” (Rom. 16:20). Elsewhere Paul writes that God has made Christ “to be head over all things for the Church” (Eph. 1:22). “For all things are yours,” writes Paul, “whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or things present or things to come – all are yours” (1 Cor. 3:21-22). And each and every Lord’s Day this truth is enacted at this Table. Here, you eat and drink in the presence of, and the certain hope of victory over, your enemies. Here, you proclaim the victorious death of the King of heaven and earth until He comes again to deliver the kingdom to the Father. Rejoice, the Lord is King!